


Once I Get You Up There

by ChelseaIBelieve



Series: Come Fly With Me [1]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Amazing Race Fusion, Developing Relationship, First Time, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pining, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-05
Updated: 2014-12-05
Packaged: 2018-02-27 07:41:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 48,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2684753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChelseaIBelieve/pseuds/ChelseaIBelieve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jonny wishes he was better at saying no to Patrick, but he can't bring himself to regret saying yes this time. </p><p>Or, Patrick and Jonny binge-watch The Amazing Race while on IR. One phone call from Brisson to the producers later and Jonny finds himself along for ride (or should he say, along for the race?).</p><p>Working Title: The one where Jonny and Patrick go on the Amazing Race during the off-season and pull their heads out of their asses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been about 8 months in the making, but also about 3 years in the making. I've always really wanted to write an Amazing Race fusion story (or read one, but no one else seems to ever write one). When Patrick went on IR at the end of the regular season last year, it sparked a plan in my mind that was only fueled by Jonny going out shortly after. I started obsessively planning everything out in the back of my bio lecture and here it is.
> 
> Everything in this story is as accurate as I could reasonably make it. A lot of hours went into research and I bought several books to help with the details as well as watched every episode of the show, so here's hoping it paid off.
> 
> Thanks go out to my beautiful beta-from-another-fandom, Laura (gottriplets), who volunteered to beta for me even though this is so not her fandom. Thanks also go out to my cheerleaders and anyone on tumblr who encouraged me to write this as I mentioned it. Oh, and thanks to Frank Sinatra, for providing me with some listening music while I wrote and also for providing me with the title, which is a lyric from the song "Come Fly With Me."
> 
> [Here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WvR-IsknrhZeLW1Og_4PrR4PXKg7qsUO4matUkx8mMM/pubhtml) is the magical spreadsheet that helped me organize this whole thing that shows the final finishing place chart, every roadblock and detour decision for every team, a leg-by-leg chart, and a list of what switchbacks are from which season. Just in case you love spreadsheets or extra data or anything like I do. :)
> 
> But the **most important** thing of all, the one thing that separates Big Bangs from just a regular old story, is the work of the artist. In the words of my 7-year-old, infinity-factorial thanks to the wonderful Katy (barefoot_starz) for this absolutely fantastic mix. You should all go listen to it and enjoy it! You can find it [right here on 8tracks](https://8tracks.com/barefootstarz/once-i-get-you-up-there).

“Tell me you’re okay.” Patrick didn’t bother to say hello when Jonny picked up his phone, seeing Patrick’s picture on the Caller ID as he headed out to the bus.

“I don’t like lying.” Jonny answered, his voice carefully neutral. He knew he couldn’t hide how long he’d be out from Patrick, but he didn’t want to make Patrick worry unnecessarily.

“Fuck.” Patrick complained.

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“How long?”

“Long enough. Got room on that couch for company until the playoffs?”

“Yeah, of course.” The sound in the background on Patrick’s end of the phone call stopped and Jonny assumed he’d muted the television. Patrick let out a harsh exhale into the silence. “Shit, Tazer. Come over whenever you’re ready. We can watch tape or play Mario Kart or whatever you want, man.”

“I’ll be over tomorrow morning after we get back.”

“See you then. Stop by your place and grab whatever shit you need if you want to just crash in my guest room.” Patrick offered and Jonny knew it was probably a bad idea, but he mumbled his agreement anyways before hanging up.

* * *

“Peeks?” Jonny stuck his head into the living room after calling out to Patrick a few times. His knocking had gone unanswered, so he’d let himself in with his key and set the groceries he’d picked up on the counter. “Kaner?” He snorted when he found Patrick still passed out on the couch.

Jonny put his bag down behind the couch before he turned around and went back into the kitchen. He put away the groceries and grabbed a couple of water bottles to bring back with him. After taking his own painkillers first, he picked up Patrick’s before heading back to the living room. He made himself comfortable and put on SportsCenter while he waited for Patrick to wake up.

“Tazer?” Patrick rubbed his eyes and yawned as he woke up an hour later. “How long have you been here? Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Here.” He ignored Patrick’s questions and held out the medicine and a water bottle.

“Thanks.” Patrick took the pills and reached for the remote. “Stop watching SportsCenter just to see if you’ll be on it. They never show hockey and you know it. Put on NHL Network at least. Just don’t make me watch fucking Orpik hit you again.” He grumbled and settled back into his seat. “Or Crosby scoring on us twice, or basically anything about last night’s game.”

“Maybe not hockey for a little while?” Jonny suggested, lifting an eyebrow and taking the remote back just as Patrick’s phone rang.

“Hey, Erica.” Patrick picked up, hitting the button to put it on speakerphone.

“How’s Jonny? The internet just says upper body injury, of course.” The annoyance in her voice was obvious.

“I’m fine, thank you.” Jonny answered over the start of Patrick’s protestations against her not saying hello to him. “I’ll be out until playoffs, but Pat and I will be back for them.”

“Erica.” Patrick whined needily.

“What?”

“I finished everything you suggested I watch and now my Netflix queue is completely empty. What should Jonny and I watch now that isn’t hockey related?”

“I still think you should watch The Amazing Race. I’m telling you, Patty, these people are hilarious. They go do all this crazy stuff around the world and so many of them have no idea how to deal with the locals. Jonny, side with me here.”

“I’ve heard of it before, but I’ve never watched it.”

“How have neither of you watched this?” She asked, her voice overdramatic with shock.

“We’ve both been a bit busy with being professional hockey players and all.” Patrick answered with a fond eye roll at his sister. “Alright, we’re gonna go now.”

“Okay. Love you! And watch it, seriously.” She made a few kissing noises over the line before it went dead.

Jonny watched as Patrick opened Hulu and clicked on The Amazing Race. He relaxed back into the couch without protest to watch the show that Erica had suggested.

* * *

After a week, they’d watched several seasons and the couch was well on its way to having side-by-side permanent butt-prints.

“We should go on this!” Patrick said with a grin. He was in high spirits after watching their team win their third game in a row that night, and against the Blues no less.

“We’re a bit busy, you know.” Jonny looked back at him, an unimpressed expression on his face as he was pointedly not thinking about the fact that couples tended to go on the show together.

“I mean over the summer. What else do we have to do in the offseason?” Patrick shrugged and pulled out his phone. “I’m calling Pat.”

“Pat cannot magically get us onto a TV show, Patrick.”

“I will make you eat those words, buddy.” Patrick teased, dialing the number. It went to voicemail, so he babbled out a message. “It’s Kaner. Oh, and Tazer. Hey, we want to go on The Amazing Race in the off-season, so, yeah. Let’s make it happen.”

“I’m not even going to say anything. Let’s just watch another episode.” Jonny picked up the remote and started the next episode.

* * *

They didn’t hear back from Pat for another three days and when he did call, Patrick was in the shower and Jonny was at his own place to check up on things. When Jonny got back to Patrick’s, he noticed the blinking message on Patrick’s phone.

“Did you see you have a voicemail?” Jonny brought the phone over and tossed it into Patrick’s lap. Patrick hit a few buttons to play the message that the screen showed was from “Brisson, Pat.” The message Pat left got right to the point.

“You two are in. Let’s talk details. Call me back.”

Patrick immediately dialed Pat’s number and put it on speaker, bouncing up and down in excitement.

“We’re in?” He asked as soon as Pat answered.

“You’re in, but before you go telling everyone, you’re going to be under a gag order to keep it quiet.”

“Fair enough.” Jonny nodded, calmer than Patrick but still excited at the prospect. Worry flared up inside him as he thought about being in close proximity to Patrick for a month or more without a break. He knew already that he wouldn’t make it through the whole thing without either kissing Patrick or punching him in the face, and neither option was acceptable.

“They had the Battaglias on a few years ago and everyone loved them, so the producers jumped at the idea of you two going. It’ll be great publicity for them and it can be some great publicity for the team, so long as you don’t keep the money if you win.” Pat explained in the background, but Jonny was barely listening.

“I was thinking we could split it between charity and maybe a few of the other contestants, if they’re cool.” Patrick admitted and Jonny knew he must’ve been thinking about this for a while.

“If you don’t win, it’s not an issue.” Pat reminded them, followed by a long pause before Pat chuckled and continued. “Look who I’m talking to. Of course you’ll win.”

“So, when do we start?”

“It won’t be until after the playoffs are over. Sounds like filming is going to be from late July to late August. You’ll be able to make the convention and be back in time for Training Camp. As long as you two tell everyone you’re off finding yourselves or something, no one will notice you’re missing for a month.”

“We can’t wait. Thank you, Pat.” Jonny ended the phone call after agreeing to talk more later.

* * *

When Playoffs started and they both were cleared to play again, talk of their plans for the off-season got put on the back-burner. Jonny resolved to just not think about the whole situation, but after a heartbreaking loss in Game 7 to the Kings and being knocked out of the Playoffs, his schedule for the rest of the post-season was cleared.

Both boys wallowed in self-pity for a while with Jonny still trying not to worry about his concerns, until Pat declared that it was time to start preparing for the show. They needed to pack everything for their trip, which would involve buying hiking backpacks and general lightweight gear needs. They spent an entire afternoon buying things online while spending all of their down time studying the show for important things to know and be able to do.

As June came to a close, Jonny had to head to Vegas for the NHL Awards. He hated leaving Patrick behind and offered to take him as his date, but Patrick had refused in an awkward moment that Jonny tried to put out of his mind.

After he got back from Vegas, Pat called to update them on contract renewal negotiations. As they sat side-by-side on the couch, Jonny couldn’t help the warmth that filled him as Patrick leaned in close and insisted that the money wasn’t as big of a deal, so long as they were long-term, matching contracts with no movement. When Pat called again with $84 million for 8 years, they agreed immediately.

They were in a Q&A at the convention when the question came up.

“What are your plans for the rest of the summer?”

“I’m thinking about cutting myself off from the world for a month or two until training camp. We are so exposed to the media constantly, so it might be nice to step back from that.” Jonny answered with a glance at Patrick. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll drag this guy out to a cabin with me to keep him out of trouble.”

“It’s not a bad idea.” Patrick conceded with a teasing lilt to his voice. “Maybe I’ll join you.”

Everyone laughed it off, but the team knew that Patrick and Jonny were actually planning to go missing for a month. They’d received plenty of chirping about it over the past few days, with most of the team convinced they were eloping.

The rest of the convention went smoothly and they headed back to Patrick’s condo after the last day to pick their bags up. Everything was packed and ready to go, and they had a flight to Las Vegas a few hours later.

“Ready, Tazer?” Patrick asked as he slung his backpack onto his back with one last glance around his condo.

“Let’s do this.”

They shared a cab to O’Hare and checked into their flight. After going through security, they headed up to wait in the first class lounge so they didn’t draw attention to themselves. When they sat down, they both grabbed their phones to out send reminder texts that they’d be gone. The only people who knew the truth were Pat and their parents. Everyone else, including both the team and their siblings, thought they were going to spend a few weeks at a cabin in Manitoba, hiding away from the media for a while. They couldn’t risk the truth leaking out in any way, so keeping it from everyone in the first place was the best method.

* * *

“Are you ready to meet the other contestants, boys?” Their handler, Jack, asked with a small smile, barely glancing up from his phone as he led them down a side corridor of the hotel. A car had met them at the airport and delivered them to an impatient Jack a few hours earlier. He’d handed them paper after paper to sign before leaving them to have a quick lunch. Following lunch, he had informed them that they’d be spending the afternoon meeting everyone and going over rules and regulations for the race.

“Yeah, definitely.” Patrick glanced over to check on Jonny, who simply nodded.

“Perfect. Right through here.” Jack opened up a door into a large conference room and motioned towards two seats that had name cards and papers at them. They sat down and took in the teams around them, sizing up the competition. There were three pairs of girls around the table and another pair of boys. The rest of the pairs were mixed, but two chairs remained empty at the other end of the table.

“Oh, good, everyone’s here. Perfect.” A woman ushered a pair of guys that looked to be in their forties over to the last open seats before heading to the head of the table. “Hi and welcome. I’m Betsy and I’m one of the production assistants. I’ll be walking you through introductions and rules now. First, a rough schedule for you all. After this meeting, you’ll be free for the rest of the night to get prepared for tomorrow. Go ahead and grab dinner, hang out, do whatever you’d like, but make sure that you’re well rested for tomorrow! In the morning, your handler will pick you up early for a final check of your bags. They’ll follow you through the plane ride to the starting line and will be in charge of you until they hand you over at- well, can’t spoil the surprise, now can I?” She stopped to chuckle at herself, but everyone in the room seemed too nervous to react. “Well, how about introductions? Let’s go around the table and everyone can say their names, their ages, their relationship, and how they met.”

The couple to the right of Betsy started after she gestured to them. They were a divorced couple that were debating rekindling their relationship for the sake of their children. After them, there were a pair of sisters, several sets of friends, and a few couples.

“I’m Corinne and this is Isabella.” The blonde girl next to Johnny spoke up when it was her turn.

“Izzy.” The dark-haired girl interrupted. “We’re both thirty, I’m an architect, and Corinne’s in marketing. We’ve been dating for the past nine years and we actually met in a French immersion program in Quebec.” She turned to Johnny and Patrick when she was finished, signaling their turn to speak.

“ _You speak French?_ ” Johnny glanced between them as they nodded. “ _Where in Quebec was your program?_ ”

“Tazer, not the time.” Patrick rolled his eyes and elbowed Jonny in the side. “I’m Patrick and this is Jonathan, though we’re Kaner and Tazer to pretty much everyone.”

“Or Little Peekaboo.” Jonny helpfully supplied.

“Or Captain Serious. Or-”

“Anyway, I’m 26 and this one claims to be 25, though he never acts it.”

“Hey!”

“Don’t interrupt, Peeks. It’s rude.”

A chuckle interrupted their banter and they glanced over at one of the guys who looked like he was in his forties.

“Sorry, it’s just so weird to watch this in person.” At their looks of confusion, he elaborated. “I’m from Chicago. I know full well who you two are.” He gestured for them to continue.

“Oh, awesome.” Patrick smiled at him. “As I was going to say before my partner here changed the topic, we’re hockey players. We play for the same team now, but we met a few times when we were kids growing up in the hockey world.”

“Do you guys play professionally then?” One of the girls, Leah, who had already introduced herself asked, twirling her hair flirtatiously around a finger.

“Down, girl.” Her friend, Sara, rolled her eyes. “Ignore her.”

Another couple introduced themselves and then the guy from Chicago was up.

“I’m Allen and this is my daughter, Genevieve, though she usually goes by Genny. She is 24 and I’m still only 29.”

“49.” The daughter interrupted with a fond eye roll and head shake. “I’m an actress and dad’s a teacher.” She paused to think for a moment. “Oh, and we met when I was born, obviously.”

The last few pairs finished introducing themselves before Betsy took over again to review the rules.

“I know you all got the packets with the rules ahead of time, but I want to make sure everyone is aware of all of them and I want to give everyone a chance to ask questions.” She explained before going through the thick packet of rules. When she was finally finished, she looked up and around at the group. “Anything else before I send you on your way? No? Okay, your handlers have your room keys.”

Patrick stood up and headed over to Jack to retrieve their keys while Jonny turned to talk to the girls again, keeping an ear on Patrick’s conversation.

“You’ll be rooming together. That’s okay, right?” Jack clarified as he handed two room keys to Patrick.

“Yup, not a problem.” Patrick chuckled and turned back to Jonny, interrupting Jonny’s offer of working together. “Jonny, she’s not gonna sleep with you.” He teased, sliding one card into Johnny’s back pocket after putting the other in his own pocket.

“ _I apologize. He thinks he’s funny. Don’t feel obligated to humor him._ ” Jonny told her, fighting the urge to press back against Patrick’s hand as it lingered over his ass.

“Quit talking bad about me. I’m starving.”

“If you’ll excuse me, my partner’s an idiot and has no manners. I’ll get him out of here. Think about what I said, though. Talk it over with Isabella.”

“Izzy!” The other girl corrected him as they walked away. “Seriously, Corinne. You know I hate Isabella.” They descended into what seemed like a well-worn argument.

“What was that about?” Patrick asked once they were out of earshot of the room.

“I was just making friends and offered a preliminary alliance with them.” Johnny shrugged as they rounded the corner to where the elevators were.

“Alright, cool. What do you want to get for dinner?”

“Let’s just do room service and then crash for the night. I overhead a few of the other people talking about going out and celebrating, so we could get a nice edge over them if we’re well rested.”

“Part of me wants to punch you right now for being so intense about this, but I’m weirdly fine with it. Your plan’s fine as long as you don’t make me wake up early to go to the gym.”

* * *

Things were rushed the next morning as Jack led them down to get their bags checked to make sure nothing prohibited had been packed. After that, they headed back to the airport to board a private plane with all of the other contestants and with no idea of where they were headed.

“Welcome, welcome!” Bertram, the executive producer, greeted them on the tarmac as they disembarked from the plane. “It’s so good to finally see all of you together and ready to go! Come on, we’re headed over to the bus.”

“Once we get to the location, we’re going to run a few shots of everyone leaving before we actually get started.” Elise, his wife, explained once they were all seated and off. “After that, we’ll group everyone back up and get started. Oh, and the location? If you don’t know already, we’re in Los Angeles.”

Time seemed to fly as they drove to the location itself, a football field at College of the Canyons, and started filming. The producers showed them where they would be running from and they did several shots of them running as a group and then shots of each individual group. After that, it was finally time to get started.


	2. Leg 1: United States -> New Zealand

“Welcome to the twenty-fifth edition of The Amazing Race. In just a few minutes, you’ll all be allowed to get started. The winner of the first leg will win an Express Pass as well as a second Express Pass to give to another team. You will need to hand the Express Pass over by the end of the fourth leg. If you make it to the final leg and cross the finish line first, you will win The Amazing Race and one million dollars. Your clues are inside the baskets waiting just behind me on the field. When I say ‘go,’ you’re going to run down there, find a clue, pick a car and drive yourself to the airport. Is everyone ready?” Phil paused to give everyone a chance to cheer enthusiastically. He lifted one hand, preparing to signal the group. “Alright, good luck, travel safe...” He paused and acted like he was remembering something he’d forgotten. “Oh, one other thing!”

The group groaned but relaxed for a moment to let Phil talk. They looked around at each other in confusion for a moment before Phil elaborated.

“This race is the twenty-fifth edition of The Amazing Race. We thought that called for a little something special. There are two special things we did to celebrate this milestone. First, you may notice that this is the same place that the twenty-fourth season started. As you race, you’ll find that we included at least one thing from each season. They could be any number of things, but most of them are in the form of Switchbacks. Switchbacks are the second thing. Every Detour, Roadblock, Speed Bump, and Fast Forward that you encounter will be a Switchback to a task from a previous season.” Phil stopped speaking and looked around the group. “Go.”

Almost everyone stared for a second before what he’d said sunk in fully, but Jonny was off and running as soon as Phil gave them the go-ahead.

“Shit!” Patrick sprinted off after him, the rest of the teams trailing behind as they all made their way across the field to the baskets. They got to the baskets first and started to check in every one they came across, dodging around several roaming camera crews. About ten baskets in, Jonny grabbed a clue out. “Open it, open it, open it!”

“Shut up.” Jonny rolled his eyes, but he tore open the clue anyway. “Make your way to Christchurch, New Zealand. You may only travel on one of two flights, alright, let’s go.” They ran and stopped next to their bags, slinging them over their shoulders before crossing the last distance to the nearest car, tossing everything in the trunk and nodding at the camera crew that was already waiting in the car.

“You drive first, go!” Patrick shooed Jonny towards the front seat and hopped into the back. “Let’s get out of here!”

“So, New Zealand?” Jonny asked as he got on the road and headed towards the airport, following the road signs.

“Apparently.” A rustling came from the back seat as Patrick pulled the clue out from the pouch to re-read it to himself. “So, we’re allowed to talk to you guys about stuff, right?”

“Us?” The cameraman asked in surprise. “Yeah, but we can’t give you any help.”

“Of course.” Jonny replied. They spent the rest of the drive to the airport talking to the camera crew about their lives and getting to know them. A few times, the camera crew were obviously trying to bait them with questions, but it went smoothly overall, with the crew only receiving carefully diplomatic answers.

When they pulled into the airport, they parked the car in a lot marked with the race flag and were glad to see no other cars yet. Both of their bags were grabbed from the trunk and Jonny led the entourage inside the building and up to one of the counters to obtain their tickets.

“First flight, baby.” Patrick turned and grinned at the camera, putting his thumbs up in excitement while the ticket agent finished printing their tickets. “Uh, we haven’t seen any of the other teams yet, so that’s good.”

“Alright, we’re all set.” Jonny turned around with the tickets. “Should we head to the gate or wait for- never mind. Hey.” He nodded at several of the teams as they neared the ticket counter before rushing Patrick and their crew in the other direction. “Okay, so who all was that?”

“I saw the skateboarders, the models, and the blondies.” Patrick looked back towards the group crowding angrily around the counter as he took stock of who was there.

They settled into a pair of seats at the gate and watched a nearby TV that was showing SportsCenter. The announcers flipped back and forth between mainly baseball and football stories and the boys zoned out as a few more teams filtered into the waiting area.

“Hey, girlies.” Patrick grinned up at Corinne and Izzy as they stepped in front of their view of the TV. “First flight?”

“Yup.” Izzy dropped down into one the seats across from them, pulling Corinne down next to her. “Last ones on it. It’s us, the self-proclaimed ‘Skater Dudes,’ the models, the blondies, and the dad/daughter team. We just barely got our tickets ahead of that angry couple.”

“We’ve been calling them the hicks.” Genevieve walked up next to them. “Mind if we join you? I don’t much fancy the intelligence level of that group.” She shook her head at where the other three teams on their flight were arguing loudly with each other already.

“Sure, no problem.” Corinne smiled up at her. “I mean, realistically, we’re going to have to kick all of your asses on our way to the million, but there’s no reason not to help each other for now.”

“Oh, yeah?” Genny teased back. “I’d love to see you try.”

After a bit of teasing banter back and forth between the three teams, Allen pulled out a deck of cards to pass the time until they could board the flight. While they rotated between Hearts, a few variations of Poker, and one horrible attempt by Genny to teach them a card game she’d known growing up, they chatted. They discussed their lives outside of the race before shifting the conversation to the race itself.

“I’ve seen every episode, so I’m pretty excited about the whole Switchback idea.” Allen admitted gleefully. “I’m hoping it gives us a bit of an edge, since I’ve seen the tricks other people learned.”

“We tried to watch all the old episodes after we found out we were coming, but we couldn’t manage it with everything else going on.” Patrick folded as play passed to him. “We did watch a decent amount, though. I’m really hoping we go to Spain for that one last season with the giant blow-up bulls.”

“That was hilarious!” Corinne laughed in agreement. “Where do you think we’ll go?”

“There’s no way of telling exactly, but there’s places they’ve visited more than others, meaning it’d be easier to pull tasks from those countries.” Allen said thoughtfully. “We’ll probably do China or India. I feel like they visit there the most.”

Their discussion was interrupted as an announcement over the loudspeaker told them that they could finally begin boarding.

The flight to Auckland was long and boring, but Patrick and Jonny slept through most of it so that they were ready to go once they landed.

“We there yet?” Jonny mumbled as he woke up a while later, blinking a few times and seeing that Patrick was quietly watching a movie.

“Nope. Got another hour.” Patrick answered, not looking away from the screen.

“You watching The Lego Movie?” Jonny asked as his eyesight focused.

“Shut up. I can’t hear over you.”

“Whatever.” Jonny shifted around until his head was resting against Patrick’s shoulder and he sniffled a few times before he fell back asleep.

When they started their descent into Auckland, Patrick shook Jonny awake so they could gather their bags. They only had about an hour to get to their connecting flight to Christchurch, so they needed to be ready to go as soon as the plane touched down.

With a nod in the direction of their newfound alliance members, they sprang from their seats as soon as they were allowed and hurried their way towards the front, both determined to get off as fast as possible. They made it to their connection before any of the other teams and boarded the short flight.

They spent the last bit of their journey fidgeting in excitement, having been cooped up on flights for hours and feeling like they hadn’t really started yet. Once their second flight landed, they repeated their actions from the previous flight, but this time ran straight for the parking lot.

“There! I see the flag!” Jonny grabbed a clue from the clue box and read it out loud for the camera crew. “Okay, Mount Somers. Let’s get a map and go!”

Patrick jumped behind the wheel and Jonny grabbed the seat behind him as their camera crew took the other half. There was a gas station near the exit of the airport, so they grabbed a map and Jonny asked the cashier for basic directions. After thanking him, they got back in the car and headed west out of town.

“It looks like we just stay on this for about 50 kilometers.” Jonny folded up the map so just the portion they needed was showing.

“In miles?” Patrick groaned.

“No, Kaner. You need to learn it.”

Their camera crew tried a few times during the drive to start an argument to make it interesting for the cameras, but the boys just chirped back and forth good-naturedly instead. Jonny directed Patrick when he had to turn and they pulled into their destination after driving for a little over an hour.

“Roadblock, okay.” Patrick read from the clue he’d torn open. “This person should be ready for a wild and wooly time. You want to do it or me?”

“Um, you, I guess.” Jonny eyed the pen full of sheep. “I’ll take the harder ones.”

“Oh, fu- rick, frick you.” Patrick caught himself with a glance at the camera.

“It’s okay. We’ll edit you.” The camera guy laughed. “We’d never have casted a couple of hockey players if we needed contestants to have a clean vocabulary during the race.”

“That’s probably for the best.” Patrick laughed before opening the Roadblock instructions, which told him he had to sort out the three black sheep from a pen full of white sheep and get them into the other section of the pen. He read it for the sake of the camera before running over towards the sheep pen. “Alright, little sheepies. Time to separate you.”

Jonny watched as Patrick tried to grab one of the black ones, but it ran in the opposite direction at the last minute, causing Patrick to trip and fall over.

“Try to stay on your feet, Peekaboo.” Jonny chirped teasingly as Patrick grumbled and stood up. After making a rude gesture in Jonny’s direction, Patrick attempted again to corral one of the black sheep over towards the gate. He finally managed to get it through the gate, but two white ones came in with it. “No, they all have to be black.”

“Got it, Tazer. Thank you.” Patrick replied sarcastically as he tried to shoo the two white ones back out. He barely kept the black one from running back into the larger pen before shutting the gate and heading off towards the corner where the other two black ones were.

“Kaner, the girlies are here.” Jonny called out as he saw Corinne and Izzy getting out of their car, followed by two other pairs. “And it looks like the skater dudes and the models. Hurry up.”

“I’m trying. This is not as easy as it looks.” Patrick managed to isolate one black sheep against a wall near the gate, but almost let the one already in the pen out while getting it in. “That’s two!”

“Hey, boys.” Corinne grinned as she climbed over into her own pen full of sheep. “Been here long?”

“Not too long.” Patrick replied as he led the last black one towards the pen. “We should all be able to be out of here before the second plane gets in, I think.” He opened the gate a crack to start to herd the sheep in, but the other two were fighting back to rejoin the big group.

“Patrick, they’re just sheep. Let’s go!” Jonny looked worriedly at where the last two cars from the teams on their plane were pulling in. Patrick growled angrily at Jonny’s impatience, but managed to get the last sheep into the pen.

“Alright, done. Happy?” Patrick hopped over the fence to get the clue from the farmer who was watching them. “Thank you.”

“Happy that I let you do the easy ones, yes. Come on, open it.” Jonny grabbed the envelope and tore it open. They leaned in close and read the directions together that instructed them to head into the Rakaia River Gorge in Windwhistle and take a boat to their next clue.

“Alright, direct me. Where are we going?” Patrick asked as they clamored back into their car with the camera crew.

“Take this road for a little while. Keep an eye on the dash so we know how far we’ve gone. I’m going to take notes about stuff real quick.” Jonny pulled out the notebook that they’d brought for note taking and detailed everything from their clues and what they’d done so far while Patrick made the drive to their next location. There was almost always a challenge at the end of the race that relied on remembering things from the race, and Jonny was determined to write down everything he could.

Once they’d parked, they headed towards where the boat landing was.

“Looks like we’re still in the lead.” Jonny glanced around the parking lot as he spoke directly to the camera. “Hopefully it stays that way. We’d really love that Express Pass.”

The boat ride to the next clue was beautiful and they pressed close together in the back of the boat as a second boat with their camera crew sped along next to them. The wind was cold, stinging their faces, but Jonny held back against the urge to cuddle against Patrick, hyper-aware of the cameras. The ride only took about fifteen minutes and they were dropped off near another clue box and a large fleet of ATVs.

“Okay, Rev It Up or Reel It In.” Patrick read off aloud before skimming the rest of the directions. “Driving or fishing, Tazer?”

“Fishing.” Jonny grabbed Patrick by the wrist and tugged him towards the ATV as he made his decision. He jumped on the ATV first and Patrick hopped on behind him, wrapping his arms tight around Jonny as he floored the gas and followed the road signs to the Reel It In half of the detour.

“Hey!” Patrick grinned and waved at the people waiting to help them get started with the detour. They each took a pole and Jonny set to work baiting both hooks. “This better go quick. I don’t want to lose our lead.”

“Would you rather try and drive a car through a course?” Jonny snapped back as he cast his line.

“As long as there aren’t any L tracks nearby, I don’t think the cars would be that bad.” Patrick chirped, laughing at Jonny’s annoyed expression.

“Shut up and fish.”

Patrick fidgeted impatiently, constantly glancing back at where the path back to the clue box was, worried about how long it was taking. Beside him, Jonny stared at the water with single-minded determinedness until several minutes later, a tug at Patrick’s line distracted him.

“Oh! Oh!” Patrick’s attention snapped back to the pole in his hand as he started to reel the fish in. “Suck it! Aren’t you supposed to be good at this?”

Jonny ignored Patrick in favor of getting the net ready, which he held out for Patrick to put the fish in. After the judge measured the fish and approved the length, they threw it back into the lake to wait for Jonny’s line to get a bite.

The second fish took longer and by the time the line started to tug, they could see another ATV pulling up into the detour. Jonny focused on reeling in the fish, but he noticed Patrick getting distracted by watching to see who the next team was.

“Peeks! Focus on me. Grab the net. Let’s get this done so we can get out of here.”

“It’s the models.” Patrick announced as he held out the net. The judge came over to measure the fish and while he did, Patrick nodded at the approaching couple.

“Hey, boys. Been here long?” The guy asked as he returned the nod.

“Not too bad.” Patrick shrugged. They’d agreed to avoid alienating any of the teams before they got to know them, so he decided against lying to him.

“We went to the other one first, but Viv’s terrible at driving stick, apparently.” He grumbled and sent an angry glare in the girl’s direction.

“Well, we’re finished.” Jonny cut in as he let the other fish go. “Good luck.”

“Good luck to you, too.” The girl replied in a snotty, fake tone.

“Well, that was interesting.” Patrick glanced back at them before tearing the clue open. “Make your way to the next Pit Stop at Terrace Downs. Let’s go!”

They jumped back onto their ATV and waited for the go-ahead from their camera crew before driving back up the path towards the boat landing. Patrick held on tight to Jonny’s waist, wrapping his arms around him while the wind rushed by them.

“At least we won’t be one of those teams that gets eliminated in the first episode, right, Jonny?” He half-shouted in Jonny’s ear as they neared the landing.

“We’d never live it down with the team.” Patrick laughed at Jonny’s response, and Jonny could feel Patrick’s laughter rumbling through his body where they were pressed together and it caused him to laugh as well.

The boat ride back felt quicker than when they were headed towards the detour. Back in the parking lot, Patrick counted the cars as Jonny found where they were headed next on the map.

“I see five other cars.” Patrick pointed out, talking through Jonny pushing him into the driver’s seat and the camera crew climbing in after them. “That means either someone’s already done with the detour-”

“Back out and turn left.” Jonny interrupted with instructions.

“Or no one from the second plane is to the detour yet. Hopefully it’s the second one.”

It wasn’t very far between where they’d parked their car and where the pit stop was, so they didn’t get settled into the car again before they were parking and grabbing their bags.

“No other cars, though they could’ve moved it to throw us off.” Patrick continued his overthinking of the car situation as they started to run in the direction of the building in front of them.

“There! There’s Phil!” Jonny pointed to one side and they redirected themselves to run that way.

“Welcome to New Zealand!” A man standing next to Phil smiled at them in greeting as soon as they jumped on the mat.

“Jonathan and Patrick, you are team number…” Phil paused for dramatic effect, playing up the situation for the camera. “One!”

Even though they figured that they were first, Jonny and Patrick still celebrated like they’d just scored a goal. Patrick jumped at Jonny to pull him into a tight hug as they cheered loudly.

“As the winners of this leg of the race,” Phil continued, “you have won two express passes. One for yourselves and the other to give to another team. You must do that before the end of the fourth leg.” He held up the two passes and Jonny took them from him.

“Thank you!” Patrick launched himself forward to give Phil a hug as well, still laughing in excitement.

“Alright, boys. We need to get a few more shots of you running up to the mat.” The camera operator spoke up. “Mind doing it a couple more times?”

“As long as we’re still the first team every time!” Patrick called back over his shoulder as he turned and headed towards the car.

They ended up having to run back to the mat three more times for shots before they said goodbye to their camera crew and were directed towards the entrance to the resort. An assistant met them and shuffled them off to where a station for interviews had been set up. They answered the obligatory questions about how they were feeling in regards to the race and to the other players. When they were finished, the assistant handed them two key cards.

“You are leaving in twelve hours.” She informed them sternly. “We will not wake you up, so make sure you do whatever you need to do to get yourselves up. Your room is on the second floor. The number is on the key cards. There will be food provided throughout your time here in the conference room that you are welcome to eat. You may bring food with you so that you do not have to spend your money on food, but remember to consider that you have to carry it and still need to follow any airport safety regulations. Any questions?” She stopped in front of the stairway to the second floor.

“Nope.” Patrick and Jonny answered in unison before taking the stairs at a quick pace.

“I’m starving. Let’s throw our stuff down and get some food.” Patrick grumbled as they made their way down the hall.

“It’s this one.” Jonny stopped in front of one of the doors and swiped his key card through the slot. Patrick pushed past him to claim his bed first, flopping down on it with an exhausted sigh and closing his eyes. “I thought you wanted food.”

“Maybe a nap first?” Patrick turned over to snuggle up to the pillow.

“No. Food first, then we can sleep.” Patrick started to whine in response to Jonny, who set his bag down on the other side of the room. “C’mon, Kaner. Captain’s orders.”

“Fine, fine. Bossy much?”

“Kaner. You just said you were starving.” Jonny grabbed his key card and headed towards the door. He heard Kaner take a breath to start speaking and interrupted first. “No, I’m not going to bring you back food.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Patrick rolled off of the bed and followed Jonny down to where the food was set up.

They nodded at their camera crew as they passed the table they were eating at before walking up to the buffet and loading plates with food. About halfway through their second plates, the skater dudes entered the room and made a beeline straight for the food.

“You cool if we sit?” The shorter one asked, gesturing to the open seats across from them.

“Feel free.” Patrick smiled up at them through a mouthful of food. “Teddy and Max, right?”

“That’s us.” The taller one, Teddy, answered. “Congrats on winning this leg! You should totally give us the extra express pass, though.”

“Yeah, since we were second.” Max nodded excitedly.

“Well, we haven’t decided who we’re going to give it to yet, but we’ll keep that in mind.” Jonny replied diplomatically.

“Cool, cool.” Max speared a piece of meat as he spoke. “You guys did the fishing detour, right? How was it?”

“Not too bad, I guess. I mean, obviously, since we got here first, but it wasn’t too painful.” Patrick stood and grabbed his plate for thirds just as Allen and Genny entered.

“Team Irish!” Teddy called out at them excitedly.

“Team Irish?” Jonny repeated in confusion.

“They’ve been calling us that, from what I can tell, because of the freckles and my red hair.” Genny shrugged as she stopped by their table.

“But you are, right?” Teddy attempted to clarify.

“Irish? Yes.” Genny nodded. “I’m going to get some food.”

“I’ll join you.” Jonny picked up his plate to follow her to the buffet again. “So, is the red hair natural?”

“Jesus, Tazer, keep it in your pants for the race.” Patrick teased when he heard Jonny, his voice sounding a little weird to Jonny’s ears.

“I’m not- That wasn’t-” Jonny defended himself, looking between Genny and Patrick. “I was just curious.”

“It’s fine.” Genny chuckled and turned to load her plate with food. “But yes, it’s natural.”

“I told you I wouldn’t be able to do it, but you wouldn’t listen!” Shouting from the doorway interrupted them as the models came bursting in angrily, trailed by Corinne and Izzy.

“Woah.” Patrick raised his eyebrows at the pair before turning to Corinne and Izzy.

“They’ve been fighting basically non-stop since the mat. We all got there at about the same time.” Izzy explained. “I don’t understand how they can be so angry at each other all the time and still be able to stand each other.”

“I don’t know. I fluctuate between wanting to rip Peeksy’s head off and wanting to hug him on an hourly basis most days.” Jonny shrugged with a laugh. “During the season, it’s even more than that.”

“Right back at you, Jonny.” Patrick leaned over and jostled Jonny’s shoulder with his own.

The models ended up sitting off at their own table, but the other groups all sat together and discussed their experiences with driving, the tasks, and the camera crews. A few more teams trickled in and by the time the eighth place team came in, Jonny and Patrick elected to call it a night and get some sleep.

Before getting to bed, they both made sure everything was ready to go for the next day. Extra food from the buffet that could easily be carried was stuffed into their backpacks and they set their clothes out so that everything else could be packed away.

“Dibs on the first shower!” Patrick declared. “I don’t know how long the hot water will last here.”

“I’ll write stuff down while you’re in there and then you can look it over for anything else you think we should write down while I shower.”

Jonny could hear the water start running and got to work writing things down. After double-checking what he’d written, he glanced over at the clock impatiently. He was tired and wanted to get to bed, but Patrick was still in the shower. At this rate, Jonny wasn’t sure if there’d be any hot water left, so he stomped over to the bathroom door, annoyed.

“Don’t use up all the fucki-” Jonny stopped as he caught sight of Patrick through the glass door, leaning back against the wall and slowly stroking his hard cock. Jonny quickly looked up and tried to appear emotionless. “It’s like rooming with you on the road all over again. Hurry up.”

Jonny slammed the door shut behind him before sitting back down in the chair and biting back a frustrated moan. It was their first night and he was already walking in on Patrick jerking off. He could just tell that everything was going to blow up in his face.

“Lock the door next time!” Jonny snapped at Patrick when he exited the bathroom, grinning smugly.

“Got out of the habit since we’ve had our own rooms.” Patrick stuck his tongue between his teeth teasingly, but Jonny just pushed past him to take his own shower.

He was tempted to take care of himself and his mind wandered to Patrick. Had he finished after Jonny came in, or did the sight of Jonny turn him off enough that he stopped? What would he have done if Jonny had joined him and offered his help? Jonny’s hand slid down his chest slowly, until the thought crossed his mind that Patrick might walk in on him just to be a dick. The idea of that happening stopped him in his tracks, and he turned the heat of the water down a bit before finishing his shower.

When Jonny came back into the room, Patrick was already passed out, so he set his alarm and crawled into his own bed, forcing himself to go to sleep.

 


	3. Leg 2: New Zealand -> Indonesia

The alarm blared loudly before either of them were ready for it. Jonny heard Patrick hit the snooze and slowly get out of bed, puttering around the room getting dressed and stopping every few minutes to throw something at Jonny in an attempt to get him out of bed.

Jonny eventually got himself out of bed and joined Patrick in his attempts to get ready, both of them quiet as they moved around each other. Ten minutes before the time they were allowed to leave, they made their way down to the lobby to meet the same assistant that had met them the night before.

“Hi, boys. Alright, let’s get over to where your camera crew is and get you ready to start.” She led them outside to where a large group of crew members were huddled near the mat that had been the pit stop. “This is your camera crew for the day.” She gestured at a pair that were waiting on the mat. “Don’t forget, you’ll switch camera crews between almost every leg to avoid favoritism and other issues.”

She handed them their clue and they stepped on the mat, waiting for the camera crew to give them the signal to start.

“Ready for round two, Peeks?” Jonny said quietly, leaning into Patrick’s side.

“With you? Of course.” Patrick winked with an over-the-top flirtatious grin that made Jonny roll his eyes and chuckle to cover the momentary flame of want that burned just under his skin.

“Okay, almost time.” The assistant was staring down at her watch. “And go!”

“Alright.” Patrick immediately tore into the clue and pulled it out, reading aloud for the camera. “Make your way to the King Cobra House at the Ciwangun Indah Camp in Bandung, Indonesia. You may travel to the airport using the car you used in the previous leg.”

“You drive.” Jonny grabbed Patrick’s wrist and hurried them off the mat in the direction of where they had parked the car the previous night. Once they were all settled into the car with the crew, Jonny navigated them back out to the main road in the direction of the airport.

They chatted on and off with their camera crew on the longer stretches with no turns and a short while later, they pulled up to the airport. There were parking spots marked with the race flag, so they parked the car and grabbed their bags before nodding at the crew and walking inside.

Patrick made a beeline right for the nearest free counter at the travel agency desk.

“Let me talk.” Jonny interrupted.

“Fine, control freak.” Patrick nudged his side with a grin before gesturing towards the counter with a flourish. “Be my guest.”

“Hi, we need to get to Bandung, Indonesia as quickly as possible, please.” Jonny told the girl behind the desk.

“Let me see what I can do for you.” She clicked away on her computer for a few minutes. “Okay, I have one that gets in about twenty minutes earlier than the other, but you would have to go through two layovers that are both quite short or another that gets in twenty minutes later but you’d have a longer layover in Singapore. Your choice.”

“I don’t want to be the idiots that missed our connection and get knocked out right off the bat.” Patrick told Jonny without hesitation. “We can make up twenty minutes no problem.”

“We’ll take the one that gets in twenty minutes later, then.” Jonny instructed the girl and she got started on the process of buying the tickets. By the time they finished and were heading towards the security line, they saw the skater dudes enter and nodded in acknowledgement.

The plane started boarding not long after a few more teams arrived and by the time they were settling down, they were one of nine teams on the flight.

“I don’t see that older couple or those two guys or the lawyers.” Jonny said, surveying the plane around them and informing Patrick as he checked out the competition.

“The bros got eliminated.” The girl across the aisle from them informed them. “The other two couples took the other flight.”

“Oh, okay.” Jonny smiled at her. “Thank you…” He trailed off, trying to remember her name.

“Leah. This is Sara.” She nodded her head at her partner. “We’re Team SaLe, because it’s the beginning of our names but also because we work in retail.” She giggled in an abrasively over-the-top manner before leaning back to talk to Sara. Jonny and Patrick exchanged a look in response to the pair, then turned their attention to the in-flight entertainment.

The layover in Singapore went smoothly with the plane landing right on time and the racers all moving to the other gate in a relatively orderly fashion since they had plenty of time. On the second leg of their flight, Jonny settled into the window seat with a pillow to try and take a nap.

“Sleep, Patrick.” He instructed as Patrick continued to fidget impatiently in his seat.

“I’m excited, okay? Don’t use your captain voice on me.”

“We don’t know when we’ll get a chance to sleep again, so you need to get over it.”

After a few more minutes of Patrick shifting constantly to try and find a comfortable position, Jonny reached out and lifted the arm rest before dragging Patrick over to lean against him. In response, Patrick simply sniffled a few times and settled against him to try and fall asleep.

A cooing noise woke Jonny a few hours later and he blinked awake to find Corinne standing over them. Patrick was still a warm weight pressing him against the wall and Jonny smiled down at him before turning his attention to Corinne.

“Mmm?” Jonny yawned sleepily up at her.

“ _You two are adorable. They’re about to turn the seatbelt light back on for the descent, so I wanted to make sure you were awake._ ”

“Merci.” Jonny said, pointedly ignoring her comment about their adorableness as Patrick shifted back to a seated position.

Where their last flight disembarkation was more relaxed, this one was anything but. All nine teams scrambled off the bus and out to where there were rows of taxis waiting to whisk them away. Patrick put their bags in the trunk while Jonny directed the taxi driver to where they needed to go. Luckily, their driver seemed to know where they needed to go and got them there in what seemed like relatively good time.

“Woah, snakes.” Patrick stopped in surprise as they neared the building.

“Kaner, it’s the Cobra House.” Jonny said shortly, grabbing the clue from the nearby box and tearing it open. “You must each eat a 20 centimetre portion of grilled king cobra meat in order to receive your next clue.”

“Jonny.” Patrick whined, taking a step back.

“Now is not the time to be afraid of snakes, Peeks.” Jonny answered softly but sternly.

“I don’t-” Patrick glanced up at the snakes again.

“They’re dead. You don’t have to eat a live snake and you don’t have to touch a live snake, you just have to eat a little bit of a dead, cooked snake. Just pretend it’s something else, eat it, and then freak out later in the car, okay?” A few of the other teams were starting to make their way to the clue box, serving as a reminder to Patrick that they were under pressure.

“Let’s do it.” Patrick nodded. Jonny could tell that Patrick was trying his best to ignore the cages filled with snakes, so he squeezed Patrick’s shoulder in encouragement as he led them to the counter where the food was. They were presented with plates and sat down on two of the stools.

“Bon appétit, mes amis.” Corinne said with a grin, sitting down next to them and taking her own plate.

“I hate snakes.” Izzy commented as she sat down on Corinne’s other side.

“Same.” Patrick agreed, staring down at his plate. Next to him, Jonny started to dig in, picking bones out as he ate. “How bad is it?”

“Kaner. It’s fine. Eat.” Jonny answered through a mouthful.

“Okay, I won two cups. I can do this.” Patrick told himself quietly before taking a quick bite.

“Good. Keep going.” Jonny encouraged him with a nudge to the side.

Jonny finished first, but once Patrick got going, he ate quickly as well. The snakes in the nearby cages made noise and lunged at the walls containing them, but Jonny tried to keep Patrick focused on their task. Their eyes kept meeting and Jonny tried to give him a few supportive smiles between bites.

“Almost done, Peeks.” Jonny looked up at the man who held the clues as Patrick shoved his final bite into his mouth and picked up his plate. The man nodded and handed them the clue, which directed them to head to the food stands near the Kawah Ratu crater. Their taxi driver was still waiting for them and they hopped back in with directions for him.

Fifteen minutes in the cab later, they pulled up to the food stand. After the taxi driver agreed to wait for them once again, they ran to the clue box.

“Roadblock. Okay. Who’s feeling hard boiled?” Patrick read off of the card.

“I’ll do it.” Jonathan shrugged. “You did the last one.” He opened up the instructions for the Roadblock, which told him to take sixty eggs on a moped ride into the hot springs and hard boil them. “I need a dozen out of sixty to get the clue. Wish me luck.” Jonny rushed off towards the food stand, getting his eggs and hopping on the back of one of the waiting motorcycles.

When Jonny got to the crater, he took one of the baskets and put the eggs into it, lowering it into the water. He looked down at his watch to check the time and then started to wait. Shortly after he placed them in the water, the guy from the self-proclaimed hicks and the guy from the argumentative model couple showed up. He nodded at them but kept to himself as they sat down and bickered with each other about how they should’ve “let the women handle the cooking.”

Both of them only left their eggs in for a few minutes before standing up to take their eggs back.

“Aren’t you coming?” The model asked Jonny questioningly.

“No, you go ahead.” He answered, letting them go with eggs that he knew would be definitely undercooked.

Just as Jonny decided they were probably finished boiling, he heard the rumble of a few more mopeds coming up the path. He took his eggs and hopped on behind his driver.

When he got back into camp, he could see Patrick standing amidst the other waiting partners, watching a few of the arguments that were going on calmly. Patrick walked over closer to the food stand as the man sliced open Jonny’s eggs. A few were overcooked, but that was okay, and he handed them their next clue.

“Make your way by train to the town of Yogyakarta and find Kilometer Zero for your next clue.” Jonny read off before they headed back in the direction of their taxi.

“Those two guys that went after you and came back earlier were so mad that their eggs weren’t even close to being done.” Patrick laughed as they headed in the direction of the train station.

“They were so mad that their girls weren’t doing the challenge. It was simultaneously sexist and hilarious.” Jonny shook his head with a chuckle.

“I’m definitely glad I sent my girl to do it.” Patrick teased playfully, earning himself a shove in retaliation. They wrestled as much as possible in the back seat of the taxi, barely avoiding knocking into the camera crew until they remembered where they were. After pulling themselves back together, Patrick nudged Jonny’s shoulder with a smile. “I’m glad you agreed to do this with me.”

“Me too, Kaner.” Jonny stopped himself from chirping Patrick for the moment of sentiment and relaxed back against the seat.

The rest of the ride was uneventful as they watched the landscape of Indonesia pass by around them. At the train station, they hurried inside to get their train tickets.

“Hi. Do you speak English?” Jonny asked the guy behind the counter, who nodded. “Okay. I need to get to Yogyakarta as quickly as possible.”

“Yogyakarta?” The guy corrected Jonny’s pronunciation. “Next train leaves in twenty minutes.”

“Great! Can we get tickets, please?” Jonny held out the money for their tickets with a smile. “And how often do the trains run?”

“Every ninety minutes.”

“Hopefully that means we can pull ahead of at least some of the competition.” Patrick told the camera as Jonny finished up getting the tickets. “We haven’t seen the two teams that took the other flight, so I think they might have missed their connection or at least had it delayed.”

“We can board the train now.” Jonny told them as he stepped away from the counter. “It’s going to be a long train ride, so we should try to sleep and eat a little.”

“How long?” Patrick asked, taking one of the tickets from Jonny’s hand. “Eight and a half hours? Yikes. Too bad we couldn’t bring a book with us.”

“We can always work on some plays.” Jonny suggested with a shrug.

“I’ll let you know when I get bored enough for that to happen.” Patrick headed off in the direction of the train, Jonny and the camera crew following behind him.

In the twenty minutes they were waiting, four other teams joined them on the train - Corinne and Izzy, Genny and Allen, the SaLe girls, and the blondies.

“The blondies and Team SaLe have this weird little alliance going, so they’re sitting in a different car.” Izzy informed them with an eye roll as she sat down on the bed below Patrick and Jonny. “Mind if we join you two?”

“Of course not.” Patrick told their four competitors as they took various beds around the small cabin. He and Jonny had thrown their bags into the top bed on one side and both climbed onto the top bed across from it to play cards for a little while. As everyone settled in, the train pulled away from the station.

“I guess that means we have an hour and a half lead on at least some of the teams.” Jonny spoke up.

“I’ll take it.” Allen replied with a glance at Genny. “I overheard some of the other teams talking that they checked during the Singapore layover and they think the two teams that tried for the earlier flight missed their connection, so that would make our five teams the head of the pack.”

“Here’s hoping that it’s you four that we beat in the final.” Genny held up her bottle of water like a toast.

“We’ll just see about that.” Jonny half-growled back in a mostly teasing manner.

“I couldn’t sleep on the plane, so I’m going to try and get some sleep now. Does someone have an alarm set? I set mine but I don’t trust just having one.” Corinne asked, looking between everyone else.

“We’ll set ours.” Patrick answered, reaching across the gap between the beds to grab it out of his bag and set it. He set it down next to the pillow and laid back.

“Get your own bed, Peeks. This one’s mine.” Jonny warned, not wanting Patrick to leave but not trusting himself to let him stay.

“I thought we were still playing cards.” Patrick picked up his hand of cards again, clearly having no intention of moving.

When the alarm woke them up eight hours later, a very sweat-sticky Jonny had cards stuck to his legs and arms with an equally sticky Patrick curled up tightly against his side.

“Turn it off.” Jonny snapped, hand fumbling for the alarm.

“We’ve gotta get up. Train’s almost to the city.” Patrick turned the alarm off and slowly extricated himself from both Jonny and the cards.

The six of them got their bags together and collected up their things before making their way out of the compartment and towards the door so that they could get off as soon as the train arrived, their camera crews jostling for position behind them. The train slowed as it reached the station and once it had stopped completely, they jumped off and raced towards the taxi stands.

“Hi, yes, can we please go to Kilometer Zero?” Jonny asked the first driver who gave them a confused look and pointed towards a different driver. They moved to him and asked the same question, and he nodded before getting into the taxi.

The ride wasn’t too long, so they were barely settled before they jumped out to race to the clue box.

“Shake Your Money Maker or Be a Ticket Taker.” Patrick read, then they both skimmed the directions. “Either we have to dance for money or park bikes for money.”

“Parking.” Jonny answered quickly.

“I think we should dance.” Patrick grinned. “Come on, Jonny. Dance with me.”

“Alright, fine.” Jonny gave in with an eye roll and they headed in the direction of the dancers.

“You put these on.” A woman instructed them, gesturing at two sets of clothing and masks. “Then, one of you dances, one of you plays gamelan.”

“Dibs on dancing.” Patrick called as he put his costume and mask on. He grabbed the container to collect the money in and wandered towards the busy sidewalk, doing his Kaner Shuffle as he went.

They finished in a somewhat reasonable time frame, but it felt slow going. Many of the bystanders gave them weird looks before walking away quickly. None of the other people from the train chose the same detour as them, so by the time they were handed their next clue, they weren’t sure where they were at in the standings.

“Okay, take a taxi to the Aisyiyah Orphanage.” Jonny read before heading towards the street where cabs were passing by. He flagged one down and pushed Patrick in first as he told the driver where to go.

“You’re such a control freak.” Patrick teased as they pulled away. “I remember watching this one, I think.”

“Yeah?” Jonny looked up from reorganizing his pouch. “And?”

“If it’s like last time, make sure you have our money ready to hand over.”

The taxi ride was short once again and they jumped out to go into the orphanage, paying their cab driver as they went. They entered through the doorway and Patrick immediately pointed to the sign instructing them to hand over all of the money in their possession.

“Here’s the money from our task.” Jonny handed over a small handful of money before pulling the rest from his pouch. “And here is the rest of our money.”

The woman who took the money smiled at them and handed them a brooch with writing on it.

“Thank you very much!” Patrick smiled back before pulling Jonny back out through the gate. “We have no money, so we have to walk it.” He walked over to a small group of locals who were eyeing them warily and held up the brooch. “English?”

All of them shook their heads, but one man gestured rough directions for them to turn the corner and head down a nearby street. After thanking him, they took off in that direction, running down the busy street, passing food carts and confused locals as they went.

“There! I see the flag!” Jonny pointed up a side street to the entrance of a courtyard. They turned and hurried up the street. When they got closer to the courtyard, they could see Phil standing next to the mat.

“Welcome to Indonesia.” The woman next to Phil told them as they stepped onto the mat.

“Patrick and Jonathan, you are the third team to arrive. However, before I can check you in, I need to ask if you gave all of your money to the orphanage.” Phil asked them.

“Yes, the money from the detour and all the money we had.” Patrick answered, a touch breathless from their run.

“Then you are officially team number three.”

“Awesome.” Patrick grinned and pulled Jonny in for a hug.

“I told you we should’ve done the other detour.” Jonny teased, but he couldn’t keep the matching grin off of his face. “Thank you, Phil.”

They shook Phil’s hand before heading off to meet a new assistant who led them to a nearby car.

“You’ll be taken to the hotel to stay at, same as last time, but be aware that you need to be in the car that will shuttle you back here for the start of the next leg at least fifteen minutes prior to your start time.” He told them as he handed them each a metal key with a room number tag on it. “There will be food provided, and everything’s basically the same as the last leg. Any questions?”

“Nope.” Jonny and Patrick both shook their heads as they answered together.

“Alright, then I will see you in twelve hours.” The assistant shut the door to their car behind them and the driver pulled away to drive them the short distance to the hotel.

They went directly to their room and put their bags down again before heading to get some food.

“Hey, boys! What took you so long?” Izzy teased from where she sat at a table with Corinne, Allen, and Genny.

“Kaner here insisted that we dance.” Jonny grabbed a plate to fill with food. “So, who won?”

“We did.” Genny informed them, doing a weird little dance in her chair to celebrate.

“Congratulations.” Patrick told them before going up to join Jonny.

Only the two other teams from their train came in while they were eating and both teams elected to join them to talk and eat together.

“Want to head to our room?” Patrick leaned over to ask Jonny quietly after they were finished eating.

“Yeah.” Jonny answered just as quietly, leaning over to squeeze Patrick’s leg before standing up.

“Good night, everyone. We’ll probably see you at the airport in the morning.”

Jonny slung an arm over Patrick’s shoulder as they exited the room and turned to go to their room. Once inside, Patrick flopped down onto his bed, looking around for the TV remote for a moment on autopilot before remembering that their room didn’t have a TV.

“We should get to sleep anyway.” Jonny reminded him sternly as he started to gather his toiletries from his bag.

“I just slept on the train.” Patrick grumbled. “We slept on the plane and then slept on the train and I know we should sleep now while we have the chance, but my sleep schedule is all over the place and I don’t feel tired and I just want to check in on everything back home.”

“I’m sure everything’s fine, Kaner.” Jonny stood back up, toiletries in hand. He took a few steps towards the bathroom and turned back to check on Patrick, who hadn’t said anything in response. “What?”

“What if-” Patrick started to ask before stopping himself.

“ _Patrick_.” Jonny pulled out his captain voice impatiently.

“What if they trade someone away while we’re gone? What if we come home and they’ve traded Sharpy away for Kesler? Or Seabs for someone terrible like Oshie? Or-”

“Stop.” Jonny set his things down on his bed before sitting on the edge of Patrick’s. “Even if they do, which I don’t think they will, there’s nothing we can do about it because we are literally on the other side of the world with no form of communication.” Jonny paused and Patrick opened his mouth to retort, but Jonny cut him off by continuing. “There’s nothing we could do about it even if we were in Chicago and you know it. Management will decide what they think is best for the team and it’ll probably suck, but we’ll make the best of it, okay? Either way, it’s you and me and Chicago for good. I promise.” Jonny gave Patrick a stern look until Patrick looked away.

“Stop being so fucking sappy and go take your shower.” Patrick chirped Jonny. It came out almost fond, but Jonny didn’t let himself focus on it. Instead, he got up and headed towards the bathroom before Patrick’s voice stopped him again. “And Jonny?”

“Yeah, Pat?”

“I’m going to fucking hold you to that promise, you asshole.”

“Aw, Peeks. I love you, too.” Jonny grinned, closing the door behind him and hoping Patrick didn’t realize just how much he meant it.

 


	4. Leg 3: Indonesia -> Hong Kong

“Ugh, fuck, jet lag is the worst.” Jonny snapped as he smacked blindly for the alarm clock. He hadn’t fallen asleep for hours, both he and Patrick tossing and turning for a good portion of the night.

“I was hoping after sleeping for so long on the train, it’d be easier to wake up this morning.” Patrick agreed, obviously more awake and more coherent than Jonny. “Of course, you’re always terrible in the mornings. Your poor girlfriends, man.”

“Fuck off.” Jonny threw back his covers and stomped towards the bathroom, not wanting to go anywhere near the conversation topic of girlfriends.

“Chill out.” Patrick called after him, and Jonny could hear the confusion in his voice. “I’m sure you’re perfectly nice to them. Am I the only one that gets to see the real morning Tazer?”

Jonny didn’t respond, deciding instead to hide out in the bathroom for a while. The question was a little too real for him so early in the morning and he didn’t trust himself to speak rationally.

Patrick spent the rest of the time before their departure tiptoeing around Jonny. Jonny knew he’d normally give him hell like usual for his terrible aversion to mornings, but he suspected that Patrick knew better than to anger him with an unknown day potentially filled with hazards ahead of them. In return, Jonny’s attitude got better and he perked up at Patrick’s peace offering of coffee.

For his part, Jonny just sat on the bed, sipping slowly at the scalding liquid, content to watch Patrick move around the room and pack up for both of them. Patrick tossed shorts and a Hawks shirt at Jonny after dressing himself, rolling his eyes as Jonny just grumbled and pushed the clothes to the side. He was an adult and was perfectly capable of choosing his own clothes. Even if he wasn’t, he certainly wouldn’t turn to _Patrick Kane_ of all people for fashion help.

Exactly twenty minutes before their scheduled departure time, they headed out to where the taxi was waiting to pick them up. When they arrived at the pit stop, the same assistant from the night before met them and handed them their clue before leading them over to the camera crew.

“You look exhausted.” Jonny commented, eyeing the assistant critically. “How late did the last teams come in?”

“Let’s just say I haven’t been to bed yet.” He replied wearily. “Brianna will be here to take over in a little bit, but her flight out of New Zealand got delayed.”

Jonny just nodded in agreement, assuming Brianna was the other assistant they’d met.

“One minute.” The woman holding the camera warned with a glance at her watch.

They got into place and prepared for their cue to start. Jonny tore into the clue when the assistant nodded at him.

“Make your way to the former Cheung Sha Wan Police Quarters in Hong Kong.” Patrick read, pressed in close to Jonny’s side. “Alright, let’s go!”

Patrick grabbed for Jonny’s wrist to tug him along towards the road, but his fingers closed around Jonny’s hand instead. Instead of pulling away, Jonny just tangled their fingers together and jogged along with him before pulling away reluctantly to flag down the nearest cab.

“Hi, can you take us to the airport, please?” Jonny asked, hoping the driver knew English. They seemed to be in luck because the driver nodded and gestured to the car.

Jonny took over at the airline desk again, begging for the quickest flight possible from the girl behind the desk. She simply nodded towards the security line, where they could see the two teams ahead of them waiting to go through the checkpoint.

“Yes, same as them.” Jonny turned back to her and held out the card to put the tickets on. “Unless you have something faster, that is.”

“No, that is the fastest.” She shook her head as she spoke slowly, her accent thick. “Direct flight.”

“Thank you very much.” Patrick told her as she handed them the tickets and Jonny echoed his sentiment before heading off in the direction of the security line. Patrick looked down at the tickets for a moment before commenting. “The flight leaves in a little over two hours. Hopefully that means we can keep the lead over the teams that were behind us.”

They passed the time waiting for their flight with cards once again and by the time they were called to board, it was only the first five teams at the airport.

The plane doors were just about to close when two people came rushing in at the last moment. Patrick looked up and groaned at the sight of the Skater Dudes high-fiving each other as they made their way to their seats two rows up from Jonny and Patrick, with Corinne and Izzy between them.

“Just made it.” One of the skaters commented, turning around to smile at them as the plane started to taxi towards the runway. “We got lucky doing that dance thing yesterday because we had a big group come up and give us money so we finished in, like, five minutes.”

“Who got eliminated?” Jonny asked curiously.

“Gram and Gramps.” The other skater answered and Jonny assumed they meant the elderly couple who’d seemed nice enough, but they’d never really interacted with them. “They were pretty awesome, but they took forever at the detour and didn’t donate all their money at first.”

“The girl said the next flight gets in three hours later than this one, by the way.” The first skater informed them before turning back around to the front.

“Notebook?” Jonny held up their book when the plane leveled off.

“Sure. You go first and I’ll add whatever.” Patrick agreed, failing to stifle a yawn as he stretched, which Jonny hated himself for finding endearing. “I’m napping.” He shuffled around until he was leaning against Jonny’s shoulder, his head tucked under Jonny’s chin.

“Alright, Peeks.” Jonny agreed, cracking the notebook open and starting to write. He tried to concentrate on the notebook and ignore the way Patrick kept nuzzling into his neck in sleepy attempts to get closer, but he was definitely failing when he was interrupted.

“Are you seriously keeping a diary?” The guy from the so-called Blondies that Jonny was pretty sure he remembered being called Adam piped up from behind him after a while. “That’s pretty gay.”

Jonny blinked at him and Corinne snorted from her seat.

“ _Does he not know there’s always a challenge where you need knowledge of the race?_ ” She asked him, speaking in French so Adam didn’t understand them.

“ _Apparently not. I doubt they’ll make it that far, but let’s not tell them just in case._ ” Jonny answered with a chuckle, carefully not commenting on the gay comment.

“Oh, whatever.” Adam rolled his eyes and settled back into his seat, muttering under his breath until his girlfriend placed a soothing hand on his arm.

“Stop insulting people in French, Jonny.” Patrick mumbled sleepily, rubbing his forehead into Jonny’s neck again.

“ _Your hair is ridiculous._ ” Jonny shot back petulantly, causing both girls in front of him to break out into laughter.

Jonny let Patrick sleep for a little while before settling in to fall asleep himself. His last thought before drifting off was if he should be worried about how the camera crew might edit all of their weird sort-of cuddling, but he decided against being too concerned. It was nice to have Patrick so close and they’d never had much of a concept of personal boundaries anyway.

The flight seemed to drag on forever once Jonny woke up, Patrick still asleep against his side. He zoned out watching the in-flight movie, but didn’t really follow along with it. Patrick woke up about an hour before they landed and took the notebook to make his own notes while Jonny read over his shoulder. Finally, they were told that the flight was preparing for descent into Hong Kong.

The cabin crew dismissed them by rows in an effort to keep everyone safe, which was frustrating to all of the contestants and camera crew. By the time they were finally allowed to disembark, all but the blondies were ahead of them so they took off towards the airport exit.

It took them three tries to find a cab driver who knew where to go. The first one didn’t understand any English while the second claimed to know where to go but his hesitation made it obvious that he didn’t actually know. The third driver they found not only knew exactly where they were going but spoke English as well.

The cab ride dragged on and on as they wound their way through the streets to the next clue box. Jonny kept an eye on the fare and pulled out the money before they arrived, paying the man and thanking him profusely before turning back to Patrick and leading him and their entourage up to the clue box.

“Kung Fu Fighting or Lost in Translation.” Jonny read from the clue then skimmed the instructions before summarizing for Patrick. “Climb scaffolding here or drive five miles to match a picture to a sign in Chinese.”

“Strength over smarts.” Patrick winked ridiculously at the camera. “I say we go with the climbing one.”

“Agreed.” Jonny put the clue in his pouch and nodded towards the camera before heading off towards where he saw the scaffolding against a nearby building. When they got close and saw that they were the only ones there, he turned to the camera for comment. “Either no one else is here yet or they all went to do the other one. Let’s hope we made the right choice.”

“Of course we did.” Patrick grinned and headed to where there were people waiting with harnesses.

They were strapped into the safety harnesses before being told they were cleared to climb. Kung fu experts were simulating a large battle on the scaffolding that they had to avoid as they began to ascend the 11-story building. Dodging around them wasn’t too difficult for either of them and the climb itself was easy as well, considering that they were both in great shape. They reached the top quickly and were given their next clue.

“Make your way to Majesty Chinese Restaurant in Jordan.” Patrick read once the cameras were focused on him and waiting for him to speak.

The cab ride only took a couple of minutes and the next clue was Jonny’s to read.

“Okay, roadblock. Who’s feeling peckish?”

“Maybe it’s something chicken related?” Patrick speculated, looking questioningly at the restaurant behind them. “It’s my turn, unless you feel a particular need to do this one.”

“Be my guest.” Jonny handed him the clue.

“Okay, use chopsticks to search among the plates of food on a buffet for one of twelve pieces of fake food normally used for display. If you pick up a real piece of food, you must eat it before moving on.” Patrick chuckled as he finished the clue before turning to the camera to speak into it. “I loved watching this one! Good choice on bringing that one back.”

They entered the restaurant and Patrick made a beeline for the table while Jonny headed to where two people were already waiting - Teddy of the skater dudes and Genny.

“How long have you been here?” Jonny asked them curiously.

“Only a couple of minutes.” Teddy answered over the noise of the singers on the stage. “The blondies left the detour before we did, but I don’t think they’ve been here yet. There’s no way they got it done that fast.”

Jonny settled back to watch as Patrick eyed each plate of food in search for the fake pieces.

“Kaner, just start picking!” He shouted after Patrick still hadn’t picked a piece after a couple of minutes. “You don’t even know what you’re looking for.”

“Shut up.” Patrick turned around so his back was to Jonny before continuing, but he still picked one after a few more seconds. “This isn’t because you told me to!”

“I honestly don’t care. I just want to get out of here before everyone gets here.” Jonny snapped back in frustration.

Kaner’s shrimp was deemed real, so he ate it quickly and turned back to the table.

“I don’t want to hear it!” He told Jonny, but Jonny just chuckled and let him continue his quest.

After a few more minutes and a few more pieces of real food, Kaner picked an oyster that the chef agreed was fake and he handed over their clue. Kaner grabbed the clue from him and brought it to Jonny.

“Okay, take a taxi and find the pit stop at Statue Square. The last team to check in may be eliminated.” Jonny read off before shoving the clue in his pouch. “Good luck!” They waved to the other contestants still at the roadblock before heading out to the street to flag down a cab.

“Hey, if the blondies got lost, we might be first!” Patrick pointed out as they settled in for the short cab ride.

The cab pulled up to a park area and stopped, so they paid the driver before grabbing their bags and heading over towards the open area.

“There!”

Jonny followed Patrick’s pointing to see Phil standing at the mat.

“Welcome to Hong Kong.” The girl next to Phil told them.

“Patrick and Jonny? You are team number…” He paused for the obligatory dramatic effect. “Two!”

“We’ll take it!” Patrick said excitedly as he turned to hug Jonny. “Thank you, Phil.”

They stepped over towards the waiting assistant, who was speaking to the camera crew.

“Alright, they say you’re good on filming, so let’s get you over to the hotel to do your interviews.” She told them. “You know the drill. Any questions, concerns, etcetera?”

“Nope.” Jonny answered with a shake of his head and Patrick answered the sentiment.

“Then you’re free to go. Congratulations!” She smiled before waving them off in the direction of the waiting travel van.

The hotel was nearby, so the drive was short. As soon as they walked through the door, they were swept into a side room to do their post-leg interview. When they were finished, Jonny steered them in the direction of the room where the food was, following the signs and the voices of the blondies.

“I want to put my bag down. I’m not even hungry right now.” Patrick complained, but Jonny ignored him and continued to lead him the other way from the hall with their rooms.

“I’m curious.” Jonny explained when they got to the doorway. “And yes, you are hungry.”

“I refuse to admit you’re right.”

“Hey, Adam, right?” Jonny asked as he slid into the seat across from the guy with short, spiky blonde hair. “Sorry, there’s a lot of people to keep track of.”

“Yeah, that’s me.” He nodded and took another bite from his plate.

“How’d it go at the Roadblock? You guys must’ve gotten done quick.” Patrick chimed in with the question Jonny was trying to ask.

“Yeah, Liv just picked the right one on the first go.” He told them with a smug grin over at his girlfriend, who was making her way back to the table.

“The shine on one of the pieces of fish just seemed different than the others.” She shrugged as she sat down. “So, you guys are like, real athletes, right?” Her leer was obvious as she gave them both an appreciative look.

“Uh, yeah.” Jonny responded and then stood up. “Well, we’re going to go grab some food and bring it back to our room. We were just curious. Good luck, if we don’t see you again before we head out.”

They both filled a plate with food quietly and left with a nod in the direction of the blondies.

“I don’t like that guy.” Patrick announced when they were back in their room. “Dibs on the first shower.”

“Fine, whatever.” Jonny let him go first, choosing instead to flip around the channels in an attempt to find something in English.

Jonny zoned out as he changed channels, barely aware of the fact that he was doing it as he let his mind wander to Patrick. He wondered if Patrick was jerking off again in the shower, but quickly tried to derail that train of thought when it started to make his pants uncomfortable.

He could feel his mood worsening as he obsessed over both Patrick and the race. He was frustrated they didn’t come in first place, but he was mostly just torn between wanting to push Patrick away for his own sanity and wanting to pull him close because he knew it was all he’d ever have. Patrick had always been touchy-feely, cuddly with Jonny whether he was drunk or not, but Patrick was like that with other people, too. Maybe not as much with Sharpy or the rookies as he was with Jonny, but he still was.

As tactile as Patrick was, Jonny knew he was just as bad, at least with Patrick. Whenever he watched any of the press videos, he cringed to watch how obvious he was. He didn’t know how Patrick could possibly be unaware of Jonny’s feelings when they were so obvious in the way he looked at Patrick, in the way he was constantly seeking out Patrick’s approval or laughter or happiness.

Part of Jonny felt like Patrick must know and just didn’t say anything, avoiding the awkwardness for both of them that would come with Patrick turning him down. He didn’t blame Patrick, but that didn’t make it any less awful.

Jonny’s brooding was interrupted by an almost-naked Patrick Kane flopping down onto the bed next to him, clad only in a towel around his waist. Jonny’s skin burned where it was touching Patrick’s and he jumped up quickly.

“I’m going to take my shower.”

“Enjoy!” Patrick gave him an over-the-top wink and Jonny slammed the door behind him before he let anything show on his face.

He showered perfunctorily, not thinking about Patrick as much as possible, and when he came back out to go to bed, Patrick had managed to get under the covers of his bed and fall asleep. Jonny sighed and turned out the light before doing the same.

 


	5. Leg 4: Hong Kong -> China

The alarm came all too quickly the next morning and Jonny grudgingly dragged himself out of bed and into his clothes, aware he was still in a bad mood and trying to avoid talking to Patrick.

“Hey, we have to give the express pass to someone by the end of this leg.” Patrick reminded him as they were getting ready to leave. “What are you thinking?”

“Let’s just give it to the girlies.” Jonny answered shortly with a shrug.

“Are you okay, man?” Patrick placed a hand on Jonny’s shoulder, but he shrugged it off.

“Yeah, whatever. Let’s get going.”

They made their way to the cab and back to the pit stop, where they grumbled their hellos to the crew. Jonny took the clue and glared around at everyone near them, hoping they wouldn’t bother him. At the assistant’s signal, Patrick opened the clue and read it.

“Okay, make your way to the Longhua Temple in Shanghai. One team will have a speed bump this leg. Last leg was a non-elimination leg, I guess. Let’s go!” Patrick tried to nudge Jonny into smiling, but Jonny just headed towards the street for a cab. Once they were inside, Patrick’s attempts to cheer Jonny up continued to fall on deaf ears.

“Peeks, just let it go.” Jonny mumbled after a while.

“Fine.” Patrick nodded and turned to stare out the window. Jonny turned to watch the back of Patrick’s head as they drove, feeling bad for taking his crankiness out on him.

Patrick didn’t turn back for the rest of the drive, leaving Jonny to just zone out while staring at him until the pulled up to the airport. After paying the driver, they sprang back into action, grabbing their bags and rushing in to the ticket counter.

Jonny let Patrick deal with getting the tickets for once, opting instead to look around them to scope out where any other teams were. They were just finishing up buying their tickets when Jonny saw the skater dudes come in. He nodded at them in acknowledgement as they passed by each other, but didn’t do anything else until they were settled into chairs near their gate to wait for boarding.

“Jonny?” Patrick’s voice was quiet, not alerting the distracted camera crew.

“I’m fine.” Jonny stopped himself from snapping at Patrick, the complete opposite of how they were on the ice. Patrick clearly didn’t believe him, but thankfully he dropped the subject again.

Patrick didn’t try to push him any more through boarding and the short flight up to Shanghai. After the long flights they’d been taking, the two-hour trip was a nice change of pace and Jonny appreciated it.

Jonny was grateful for Patrick not continuing to prod him about his ongoing bad mood, but he was sure the editors were going to have a field day with the footage the cameras were getting of them. It wouldn’t take any sort of trickery to portray them as having some weird lovers’ spat, particularly with the way they kept catching each other staring when they thought the other one wasn’t looking. Jonny wanted to huff in frustration as the camera crew shuffled their equipment around, forcing him to press in closer to Patrick in the cramped back seat of the cab.

They finally got to the Longhua Temple and made their way to the clue box, seeing the Speed Bump meant for the SaLe girls. Jonny grabbed the clue and tore it open to read it.

“Who thinks they can sum up Buddha? Alright, it’s my turn, unless you want to.”

“Go right ahead. Just you know, if you’ve gotta meditate or some shit like that, see if you can find your old self and bring him back.” Patrick chirped him and Jonny could hear his frustration with Jonny’s shitty mood getting to him. Obviously Patrick was no stranger to a pissy Jonny, but they were in a whole new situation with messed up sleep schedules and no routines. Jonny opened the clue to the instructions and resolved to get over himself for Patrick’s sake.

“Okay, enter the Arhat Hall and count all of the golden statues in the room.” Jonny stepped into the hall to find a room filled with golden Buddha statues. He was the first one into the room, but within a few minutes, one of the blondies and one of the skater dudes had joined him. As he stepped out to give his first guess of 519, he saw Corinne and one of the twin sisters heading into the hall as well.

“Oh, Corinne. _Take this._ ” Jonny waved her over and slid the express pass out of his pouch, handing it over to her.

“ _Seriously? You’re the best!_ ” She grabbed him for a hug, and he reluctantly hugged back, trying to not be cranky with her and forcing a smile as she pocketed the express pass.

Being told he was wrong certainly didn't help Jonny’s bad mood, but ten minutes later, after watching three other teams finish first, he was glaring daggers at everything around him.

“Wrong again, Tazer?” Patrick groaned from where he was waiting with the other team members.

Jonny just glared and didn’t dignify him with a response. When he went back in, it was just him, Corinne, and Allen.

“Alright, we’ve gotta do something.” He told them. “Let’s compare answers we’ve guessed and try to logically figure this out.” He held up the paper he’d been writing his guesses down.

Corinne glanced between all three papers before speaking. “We’ve gone all the way around 523, but haven’t guessed that. I’ll go try that. If it’s right, you guys know to guess that, too. If not, we’ll try something else.”

“Good plan.” Jonny nodded and they followed her out. She guessed 523 and received her clue, so both Jonny and Allen went over to make their own guesses.

After getting their own clue and reading the instructions to head to their next stop, Jonny turned to find Patrick grinning at him.

“What?”

“You had to have a girl help you.” Patrick said teasingly.

“Shut up or I’ll tell your sisters that you implied girls aren’t as good.” Jonny warned, but he cracked a smile for the first time all day.

“Jonny.” Patrick leaned in close to whisper his name in the cab and Jonny had to close his eyes at the softness in his voice. “You ready to talk about it?”

“Not yet.” Jonny shook his head fondly but made an effort to keep smiling as the cab drove through the streets of Shanghai.

They pulled up close to the next clue box and hopped out, Jonny paying the driver as Patrick grabbed both of their bags. Ahead of them, Corinne and Izzy were already opening their clue. Patrick held onto Jonny’s bag while Jonny grabbed the clue and tore it open.

“Detour. Bricks or Ice. Either we have to move 300 bricks while balancing or each bike 220 pounds of ice. Okay, babe. Arms or legs?”

“Ugh, neither.” Patrick groaned. “Um, let’s do the bikes. We know we get along well with ice.”

“Okay, Ice. Let’s go.” Jonny moved to grab his bag from Patrick, but Patrick just held it out for him to slip his arms into. Jonny did so, mumbling a quiet “thanks” and sharing a smile with Patrick.

They ran quickly in the direction of the Ice detour, Jonny tucking the clue into his pouch as he went.

The detour didn’t take too long, their athleticism making both the loading of the ice blocks and the biking four blocks easy. When it came to breaking the ice into chunks upon delivery, they worked quickly, ignoring the other teams at the detour to keep from distracting themselves.

The cab ride was a different story. Once they got the clue telling them to head to their next pit stop, the Peace Hotel South, they flagged down a cab driver who nodded and drove away.

“I’m pretty sure we’ve passed this building twice already.” Jonny pointed out in concern as their driver looked around him in confusion before turning down a side road that Jonny would swear they’d already been down. “Um, sir? Do you know where you’re going?”

“Where again?” The driver responded, his accented English hard to understand.

“The Peace Hotel South.” Jonny answered and the driver pulled his phone out. He shared a look with Patrick as the driver spoke rapidly into the phone before hanging up and turning down a new road.

“Fuck.” Patrick groaned. “At least hopefully we’ll still beat enough of the teams.”

“I’m not worried.” Jonny nudged him reassuringly. “We’ve got this.”

Patrick was jittery the whole rest of the drive and Jonny put a hand on his knee to calm him down a little. Before the car was to a complete stop, Patrick was throwing open the door and pounding to open the trunk.

They took care of everything at the car and as soon as they were done, Patrick was off in a flash to run to Phil. Jonny followed quickly, adjusting the straps of his bag as he glanced around to make sure no other teams were coming up at the same time.

“Welcome to China.” A man next to Phil told them as they stepped on the mat nervously.

“Patrick and Jonny, you are team number…” Phil paused for only a short moment before continuing, “six!”

“Six?” Jonny frowned.

“Hey, I’ll take it, as long as we’re not last.” Patrick smiled, but Jonny could still see that he was disappointed in their low placement.

“I don’t like being in the bottom half, but I guess it just gives us a reason to really push ourselves tomorrow.” Jonny said diplomatically, knowing he sounded a bit like he was giving a post-loss interview.

They both shook Phil’s hand before heading over to meet the assistant who ushered them into the hotel at the pit stop, leading them to their interviews. After the interviews, they put their bags down into their room before heading down for food. When they got to the dining room, they were the only team there.

“That’s strange.” Jonny said, glancing around at the tables, only seeing crew members eating.

“I think they all took their food back to their rooms since there’s some TV in English here.” One of the production assistants answered their unspoken question.

“Awesome!” Patrick declared as he grabbed a plate to load up with food. “Let’s do that.”

They brought their food back to the room and settled down onto one of the beds next to each other. Patrick excitedly grabbed the remote and Jonny held back a laugh at Patrick’s enthusiasm.

“Okay, let’s see if we can find some sports news. Do they have ESPN here?” Patrick asked as he started to flip through the channels.

“I have no idea.” Jonny admitted with a shrug before taking a bite of his chicken.

Patrick ate a few bites as well as he flipped through the channels. They struck out on finding ESPN, but they did find a channel showing old reruns of Friends.

“I suppose this will have to do.” Patrick frowned slightly as he left it on. “Friends is great and all, but I was really hoping to hear some news from back home.”

“They do have some news channels.” Jonny pointed out, even though he knew that wasn’t the kind of news Patrick was interested in. “Peeks, everyone is fine. I bet they barely even notice that we’re gone.”

“Fine, fair enough.” Patrick conceded, turning his attention back to his plate.

When both of their plates were empty, Patrick took them both and walked over to set them on the desk. Jonny expected him to move to the other bed, but he didn’t.

Instead, he crawled back into bed next to Jonny, sliding under the covers with a yawn. Jonny took that as his cue to move to the other bed himself, but Patrick grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“Where are you going?” Patrick asked, voice already starting to fade with exhaustion.

“To bed?” Jonny answered, looking down at Patrick in confusion.

“Okay, yeah. We should get some sleep.” Patrick nodded and pulled at the covers next to him.

Jonny didn’t move at first, trying to figure out Patrick’s motivation, but then Patrick pulled the covers over Jonny’s lap as best as he could.

“Good night, Tazer.” Patrick reached over and turned the light off with his free hand, keeping his other hand wrapped around Jonny’s wrist.

“Good night, Peekaboo.” Jonny whispered, shifting down so that he was under the covers. He moved until he was on his side facing Patrick, but focused on where he could see the TV between them at the foot of the bed.

Patrick’s fingers loosened slightly around Jonny’s wrist once he settled himself down, but he didn’t move them away.

“This is harder and easier than I thought it would be.” Patrick said quietly after a while, long after Jonny had thought he’d fallen asleep.

“What?” Jonny responded, looking at Patrick who was looking down at his hand on Jonny’s wrist.

“You. This. Us.” Patrick shrugged. “Never mind.”

Jonny didn’t say anything, watching silently instead as Patrick’s eyes slowly closed and his breathing evened out, mind racing to try and understand what Patrick meant.

Once Patrick was asleep, Jonny realized how late it was getting and tried to force himself to get some sleep, but it was no use. He just kept turning what Patrick had said over in his mind, trying to find what way Patrick could have possibly meant that.

When the episodes of Friends gave way to another old sitcom that Jonny recognized but couldn’t place, he twisted his wrist to pull it out of Patrick’s hand, locking their fingers together instead and finally making a decision on what had been bothering him the night before and all day.

If this was all he’d get from Patrick, he’d take it, no matter how much it hurt that it wouldn’t be more.

 


	6. Leg 5: China -> India

When Jonny woke the next morning with Patrick curled tightly into his side, he did his best not to move so he didn’t wake him up. He attempted to keep his breathing even, his eyes focusing on the sight of Patrick’s curls nestled against his chest.

“Jonny. I know you’re awake.” Patrick spoke barely above a whisper in the quiet of the room.

Jonny opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out. Patrick didn’t move or turn to look up at him before speaking again.

“I don’t- I- _Jonny_.” Patrick nuzzled his head against Jonny’s chest before making a noise that was a mix between an a groan and a sigh.

They stayed in silence for a few more minutes, Jonny unsure what was happening or what to do, until the alarm broke their reverie.

Jonny didn’t know what to say, but it seemed like Patrick didn’t either, so they got ready in an abnormal but strangely comfortable silence. They barely interacted as they prepared for the day, except for when they stood in the bathroom next to each other to brush their teeth and Patrick gave him a small smile in the mirror before ducking out of the room.

The silence almost felt like the morning after their last pit stop, except Jonny didn’t feel upset. Confused, yes. Overwhelmed, a little. Upset? No, and it seemed like Patrick could sense that because he perked right up once they were walking across the grounds to the pit stop.

“Alright, Tazer? We good?” He put a hand on Jonny’s shoulder just before they got to the camera crew. Once the cameras were on, Jonny knew they wouldn’t be mentioning the fact that they’d fallen asleep together and then cuddled this morning while both fully coherent. Jonny worried for a moment whether that meant they wouldn’t talk about it at all, but instead nodded and squeezed his own hand over Pat’s reassuringly.

“We’re always good, Kaner.”

They introduced themselves to their new camera crew and shook hands before heading to the mat to open their clue.

“Make your way to the India Gate in New Delhi, India.” Patrick read off excitedly.

They set off towards the street, camera crew following them, and flagged down a cab. In the cab, the camera crew asked them some questions about how they were feeling about other teams, each other, and going to India. They answered diplomatically as usual, as if they were speaking to reporters during post-game.

They arrived at the airport and made their way up to a ticketing counter.

“Hi, we need to get to New Delhi as quickly as possible.” Patrick told the man at the counter, who nodded and began to type into his computer. Jonny trusted Patrick to handle it again and watched as he debated options with the man. “Okay, we’d much rather do the non-stop, right, Jonny?”

“Huh? Yeah.” Jonny nodded in agreement, thinking back over what they’d been saying for a moment before expanding on his answer. “Better to leave a little later from here than mess with connections.”

After they finished up with the tickets, they went to sit with the other teams waiting at the gate.

“Apparently the lawyers have a speed bump, thanks to another non-elimination leg last night.” Corinne informed them as they sat down.

“Does anyone know how many non-elimination legs we have this time?” Patrick replied, glancing between her and the other players.

“I’m not sure.” Corinne shrugged and they continued to talk, but Jonny tuned them out.

“ _You okay? You’re looking a little off._ ” Izzy leaned over to ask, speaking low and switching to French so no one would understand.

“ _Yeah, I’m fine. Just been a weird couple of nights._ ” Jonny shrugged with a glance towards Patrick.

“ _I know what you mean. Corinne and I have been debating it, too. I mean, it’s not in the rules either way, but like, is sex okay on the race or not?_ ”

Jonny choked on air at her question and Patrick turned to him in confusion, thumping him on the back a few times.

“Alright there, Tazer? No dying on me or management will have my head.”

“I’m fine.” Jonny waved him off with a hand and a glare towards Izzy, who was clearly holding back laughter. “ _There’s still cameras! Besides, no, that’s not- he and I aren’t- it’s not-_ ”

“ _But?_ ” Izzy coaxed with a grin, but Jonny just gave a significant glance towards the cameras. No one was filming at the moment that he could see, but he still wasn’t about to risk admitting to anything. His family would be watching this and they could understand what was being said, even if none of the other racers could. Izzy seemed to realize this and rolled her eyes at him. “ _Fine, fine, but we’re talking about this when there aren’t cameras because I’m not an idiot._ ”

Jonny just grunted in agreement before settling back into his chair to glare in the general direction of where Patrick was talking to several of the girls from the other teams. He was regaling them with tales of his sisters and asking for their advice about Jackie’s apparently new boyfriend, but he looked back at Jonny to check on him every once in a while.

“Jonny, stop making your scary face.” Patrick said as they started to gather up their things to board the plane.

“Sorry.” Jonny slid his bag on and attempted to look Patrick in the eyes as he said it.

“Don’t get all Canadian on me and apologize, Tazer. Come on, give me a smile.” Patrick poked at his stomach in an obvious attempt to make him laugh, but Jonny just gave him a blank stare instead, fighting back a quirk of his lips before turning away.

The flight passed slowly as they watched the in-flight movies and generally zoned out. They were lucky to be right near the exit, so as soon as they were allowed to disembark, they were off in a flash to grab the first taxi they could see.

“India Gate, please?” Jonny asked the cab driver, showing him the clue. The driver nodded and pulled away.

When they got to the India Gate, no one else was there yet and the drive had seemed pretty short, so Jonny assumed they were in the lead. He asked the driver to wait for them while they ran for the clue.

“Okay, roadblock.” He opened the clue, but there was an extra sheet. “Or fast forward?”

“Let’s do it. All of the tasks I can remember in India were super hard, so hopefully we can get a good lead.” Patrick answered and grabbed for the clue. “Travel to Jantar Mantar to climb 22 or 33 steps to retrieve the clue.”

“Jantar Mantar?” Jonny hoped he was pronouncing it right, but he seemed to do alright since the driver pulled away into traffic. He drove for a few minutes before dropping them off near what appeared to be a bunch of different staircases in a courtyard.

“What on earth…?” Patrick asked as he looked around.

“Climb 22 or 33 steps.” Jonny repeated and headed off towards the stairs with Patrick and the camera crew close behind. “It’s probably one of the taller ones.”

They passed a few staircases that were shorter and Jonny ran up one of the staircases, counting steps as he went. The count was wrong, but from the top of the stairs, he could see the clues on the platform of one of the other staircases.

“There!” He shouted to Patrick, who was running up a different staircase. They both headed back down and just as they were starting up the stairs with the clue, Jonny could hear the shouts of another team coming up to the courtyard. Patrick was ahead of him on the stairs and almost lost his balance as he grabbed the clue.

“Got it!” Patrick shouted excitedly as Jonny grabbed the back of his shirt to help him balance. They went back down to the bottom of the staircase to where the camera crew was waiting. Patrick tore the envelope open with a bit of an excited bounce. “Make your way by train to the Pit Stop at the Fountain of Joy in Kolkata, India.”

“Ugh, you guys suck.” Adam groaned as he and Olivia came up to them. “You’ve got it officially, correct?”

The camera crew confirmed details with the blondies for a moment as Patrick and Jonny started back towards the road to flag down a cab again. When the camera crew got over to them, they instructed their driver to take them to the nearest train station that could get them to Kolkata.

Patrick took over ticket duty again at the train station and got their tickets sorted out for both of them. Jonny waited with the camera crew, barely containing how excited he was at having won the fast forward.

“Okay, Tazer. Ready for nineteen hours on a train with your favorite right winger in the whole world?” Patrick teased as he walked up with a glance at where the camera crew was trying to be stealthy in filming them. Jonny held back from rolling his eyes at them, but chirped back for their sake anyway.

“Why, is Hoss here?”

“Ouch. You wound me.” Patrick continued to ham it up in front of the camera for a moment. “It’s gonna be a long ride, but the nice thing is that apparently the trains only leave every two hours, so we’ll get a nice head start on the other teams and hopefully spread it out a little for as long as we can.”

“Until we inevitably have something to bunch us all back up.”

“Probably the plane ride to start the next leg.” Patrick nodded in the direction of the train, which was starting to board. “Ready to get on?”

“If we must.” Jonny sighed, not looking forward to such a long train ride.

When they sat down, Jonny was at least grateful that they had a two-seat next to the window. Patrick pulled some sandwiches from his bag and they ate quietly as the train pulled away from the station.

Jonny pulled out their notebook as Patrick cleaned up their trash and they got to work taking notes. They didn’t get very far before the camera operator leaned across the aisle to talk to them.

“Mind if we get a few shots of you for stuff?”

“What do you want us doing?” Patrick asked with a nod, slipping the notebook back into Jonny’s bag.

“Any chance we could get you speculating on other teams, alliances, stuff like that?”

They agreed and the camera crew filmed them as they talked a little bit about who they liked, who they weren’t big fans of, and a little bit of smack talk about how they were going to win. They were sure to keep everything friendly and after a little while, the camera operator gave them a thumbs up and turned the camera off.

“Thank you.” She told them with a smile. “We’ll leave the cameras off for a while now. Unless something happens, you’re free to do whatever without fear of recording until we get closer to Kolkata.”

“Okay.” Jonny turned back to Patrick and they went back to working on their notebook.

“Cards?” Patrick asked, pulling a deck out from his bag when they were done with their notebook.

“I guess.” Jonny shrugged, knowing there wasn’t much else to do for the next eighteen hours.

They climbed up onto the bunk over their seats to play so they had a flat surface and spent the next several hours winding their way through all the two-player card games they knew. Patrick eventually pushed Jonny onto his stomach and stretched out next to him, declaring that they could just play one-player games together. It started to get darker as the time wore on and Jonny watched as Patrick grew slower and slower in his movements at their game of solitaire until his eyes finally closed and didn’t open back up.

Patrick snuffled in his sleep and curled into Jonny’s side. They were close already because the bunk really wasn’t made for two people, but Patrick’s subconscious seemed determined to get as close as possible to Jonny.

“Fuck.” Jonny whispered to himself and looked down at the cards once more. He tried to continue playing, but Patrick’s breath against his skin made it impossible to concentrate. Finally, he huffed out a noise of frustration and put all of the cards back in their box before putting his head down on his arms and allowing himself to slowly drift to sleep as well.

When Jonny woke, he could tell without opening his eyes that Kaner was gone. The bunk felt cold and empty next to him. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been asleep, but when he blinked a few times, he could tell it was still pretty dark out.

Jonny leaned over the side of the bunk to see Patrick down on their seats with their notebook out. He had a pencil in hand and was drawing something near the back with a concentrated look on his face. Jonny just watched him for a few minutes until Patrick glanced up and saw him.

“Morning, sleeping beauty.” He teased with a grin. “We’re only about five hours away!”

“Only?” Jonny groaned, rolling back onto the bunk.

“Don’t go back to sleep or you won’t be able to sleep when we get to the pit stop.” Patrick reminded him.

“I’m bored out of my mind already.” Jonny grumbled back.

“I’ve been working on some ideas I had for plays.” Patrick’s grin was evident in his voice and Jonny took a moment to resent how well Patrick knew what would keep him from going back to sleep. “Oh, and I took all of the stuff you’d drawn up in here already and basically made it more awesome.”

The idea of Patrick changing around what he’d already done got him out of the bunk and down into the seat across from him. He grumbled as he moved and snatched the notebook from Patrick’s hand.

He prepared to see all of his work messed with, but as he flipped through the pages, he realized Patrick hadn’t actually touched anything except to add on some new stuff to the end.

“This one,” Patrick pointed at one of the plays, “is so great that we should name it after me. Other people will try to imitate it, and they’ll have to call it a Patrick Kane. I can practically taste how much Crosby will hate that.”

Jonny sighed in exasperation at Patrick, but Patrick did have a point. It was a great play and he knew they’d have to try it when they got back. He begrudgingly agreed to talk about how great Patrick’s ideas were and it wasn’t until they were starting to get to their stop that Jonny realized how much time had passed while they’d been talking.

The camera crews turned everything back on and had them lay back down to get a few montage shots. They each carefully climbed into their own separate bunks this time and faked sleep for the sake of the cameras.

Once the train stopped, they got off and headed towards where a line of cabs were waiting.

“Hi, Fountain of Joy?” Jonny told the first cab driver they found. He looked at them in confusion, so Jonny moved to a different one. The fourth driver they spoke to knew where they were headed, so they climbed in and made their way to the pit stop.

Phil was waiting at the mat, so they jogged over to him.

“Patrick and Jonathan, I am pleased to tell you that you are team number one.” He told them without even attempting any suspense, since it was obvious that they were. “As the winners of this leg of the race, you will be receiving a trip for two from Travelocity to London.”

“Thank you, Phil.” Jonny told him as Patrick pulled him in for a quick hug in celebration.

They said their goodbyes and went through the typical process of moving over to the hotel. They did their camera interviews right away and finished quickly since they had just taken the fast forward. After dropping their bags off, they went to get some food.

“How much of a lead do you think we’ll have on the other teams?” Jonny asked in between bites of his food.

“Hopefully at least a couple of hours to start. I’m sure there’ll be something to group us back up before too long, but it’d be nice to keep a little bit of a lead.”

“Which is exactly why they won’t let us.” Jonny pointed out with a frown.

“Pretty much, yeah.”

When they were done eating, they decided to head back to their room instead of trying to wait up for the other teams.

In the room, they took turns taking showers and Jonny went first. It felt wonderful to get clean after nineteen hours in a hot train and he slid happily into bed as Patrick went to take his shower.

While Patrick was in the bathroom, he debated internally for a few minutes before deciding to move over to one side of the bed in case Patrick wanted to join him. He wouldn’t ask or push, but he’d leave the option there, just in case.

He turned the TV on, leaving it on the same channel just as background noise, and let himself drift off to sleep to the sounds of running water from the bathroom.

 

 


	7. Leg 6: India -> Morocco

Jonny woke up groggily to the rustle of his bed moving. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was nowhere near time to wake up.

“Peeks?” He mumbled as he registered why his bed was moving.

“Shhh, go back to sleep.” Patrick whispered, scooting over to lie down close to Jonny but just far enough so that they weren’t touching.

“What’re you doin’?” Jonny rolled up onto his side facing Patrick, snuggling his head further into the pillow as he did.

“Can’t sleep.” Patrick admitted quietly. “Already got used to having you…” He trailed off, closing his eyes.

“M’kay. Talk later.” Jonny pulled Patrick against his body, turning him to be the little spoon, without fully comprehending what he was doing. It wasn’t until Jonny felt Patrick’s ass press back against him that he took a second to mentally berate himself for being so obvious. It only lasted a moment before Jonny could feel Patrick’s warmth seeping into his body and he dozed off again.

The next time Jonny woke, it was to the alarm clock ringing. He leaned over to turn it off before cuddling back into Patrick’s neck and pushing his hips forward. He didn’t realize what he was doing until Patrick let out a small whimper.

“Jonny.” Patrick’s voice was scratchy from the morning and he spoke barely above a whisper.

“We really need to get ready and head out.” Jonny jolted backwards and out of bed, moving quicker than he thought he’d ever moved in the morning. “I’m just going to shower real quick.” He grabbed his bag and retreated into the bathroom, slumping over the sink with a sigh.

He pointedly ignored his erection, throbbing at him obnoxiously as a reminder that he’d embarrassed himself with Patrick. Instead, he soaped up his hair and body methodically before rinsing and drying off. Even though he’d showered the night before, it bought him time, but when he ran out of things to do to avoid Patrick and stay hidden in the bathroom, he reluctantly came out. Patrick slid by him with a soft squeeze to his hip as he went to get ready.

Patrick seemed to take forever in the bathroom and Jonny was torn between being glad that he was spared from having to face him for longer and being stressed about time. When Patrick finally came out with a huge grin on his face, they were basically out of time before they had to leave.

“Come on, Kaner. We’re going to be late.” Jonny grumbled, sliding his backpack onto his shoulders.

“Listen, Jonny.” Patrick stepped up into his personal space, looking up to stare him in the eyes.

“Patrick, can we just-?”

Jonny’s question was cut off by the press of Patrick’s lips against his own. Patrick pulled back and smiled up at Jonny for a moment before repeating the action again and walking towards the door.

“Come on, Tazer. We’re going to be late.” Patrick chirped back at Jonny as he held the door open.

Jonny continued to stare for a moment at the spot Patrick had just vacated, squinting his eyes slightly in confusion, before slowly turning and walking out the open door.

“What?” Jonny asked, brain still trying to process.

“We’ll talk at the next pit stop when we don’t have the camera crews around.” Patrick answered, his voice cheerful.

“But.” Jonny protested half-heartedly, even though he knew Patrick was right.

“Butt?” Patrick paused to glance at Jonny’s ass for a second before looking back up and winking. “Yes, it’s very nice.”

Jonny was silent for the rest of the trip to the starting mat, turning what had just happened over in his head. Patrick had kissed him. Jonny had come to terms with the fact that his feelings towards Patrick were obvious to anyone who’d ever spent more than fifteen seconds in their presence, but he never seriously thought for a second that they might be returned.

He didn’t even know how to begin processing what had happened. He barely paid attention when Patrick opened the clue telling them to make their way to Marrakesh, Morocco and couldn’t focus on anything during the drive to the airport.

When they were finally settled onto the plane, ready to take off just as the first groups started to arrive at the airport, Patrick prodded Jonny’s side.

“Stop glaring at everything. You’ll make the camera crew think you’re crazy.” When Jonny just gave him a blank stare, Patrick continued. “I told you, we’ll talk when we get to the next pit stop. Now stop with the crazy eyes at everything. I’m pretty sure the flight attendant thinks you’re going to kill him, but you can chill out. I promise I have no interest in him, okay?”

Jonny watched Patrick’s lips as he spoke, feeling dazed. He hadn’t even realized he was glaring at the flight attendant.

“What?”

“Where’s your brain today?” Patrick chirped with a grin. “You’re usually on top of things. The flight attendant, the one who was just flirting with me? Be nice to him.”

“Okay.” Jonny nodded, still feeling frazzled and out-of-sorts.

“It’s going to be okay, you know?” Patrick nudged him in the side, his smile softer now - more fond and less teasing.

“Let’s just get through this leg as quick as possible.” Jonny attempted to clear his head of distractions and focus on the race.

They spent the first plane ride watching the in-flight entertainment and debating some more plays in the notebook. Jonny tried to smile up at the flight attendant, but from the apprehensive look he got in return, he figured he must be failing.

The layover and second plane ride were uneventful and after far too many hours spent in the air, they finally descended into Marrakesh.

“Where do we go from here?” Jonny asked as he pulled out the clue again. “It doesn’t say.”

“There!” Patrick pointed towards a race flag and they rushed over to where a clue box was. Patrick took a clue and read. “Drive yourselves to Café Glacier.”

“Excuse me.” Jonny stepped over towards a group of people waiting by the taxi stand. “Does anyone speak English and know the area who could help us out for a moment?” No one responded, so he tried again. “ _Or French?_ ”

A woman waved him over and told him she spoke French.

“ _Where is Café Glacier?_ ” Jonny took the clue from Patrick and pointed to the words on the paper. The woman smiled and held out her hands.

“ _Pen? Paper?_ ” She asked and Patrick scrambled to give her their notebook, flipping it open to a blank page. She drew a crude map for them, giving directions as she wrote with Patrick nodding along even though he didn’t understand her. They thanked her profusely, with Patrick even managing to say “merci,” and then hopped into the car with Jonny driving.

“Okay, get onto this main road.” Patrick read off the directions and they navigated to the café easily. “She was the best. These directions were perfect.”

Jonny parked the car and they ran in to get their next clue. A man behind the counter handed them the clue and Jonny tore it open.

“Roadblock. Your turn, Peeks.” Jonny handed the clue to Patrick.

“No, last leg was my turn.” Patrick argued, but Jonny could tell he was teasing and Patrick opened the clue. “Okay, sell five bowls of escargot.”

Patrick followed a different man who ushered him into the back to prepare. Meanwhile, someone else led Jonny upstairs to the roof to watch the square. He watched as Patrick came out, helping to push a large food cart. When they got to the right place, Patrick began to help them unload the cart and set things up. Jonny bounced impatiently as Patrick did his best to sell the required five bowls, but it wasn’t long before he’d completed the task and Jonny was allowed to meet him back downstairs.

“Okay, okay, detour!” Patrick pulled the yellow card from the envelope. “Throw It or Grind It. Make clay pots or grind olives.”

“Should we use our express pass now and keep the lead we have going? We might be able to keep it up enough to catch an earlier flight and beat all the other teams again.” Jonny suggested. “We only have a couple more legs to use it in anyway, and the tasks tend to get easier when we get into Europe anyway, which I assume is where we’re headed next.”

“Neither of these sounds particularly fun, so sure, why not?” Patrick shrugged.

“Then let’s find out which one is closer and use it right away when we get there.”

Patrick took the clue and asked around to a few locals until he managed to get directions, Jonny giving him a minute to attempt on his own in English before stepping in to try French again, knowing many people in the country spoke it. To Jonny’s surprise, Patrick managed to find someone who knew exactly where both places were and give decent directions to the one he insisted was closer.

The drive was horribly long, almost three hours each way with no working radio or music, but as soon as they arrived, they hopped out of the car and handed over their express pass for the clue.

“Make your way to the next pit stop. Follow the road back to Marrakesh until you find a route marker, then follow the path.” Jonny read.

“Oh god, fine, but we cannot keep driving in silence. We can play a stupid car game or something.” Patrick groaned, clearly not looking forward to a few more hours driving on the road. “You know, this is way more sitting around on trains and planes and buses and cars than I thought it’d be. The editors do a good job at making it not seem like it.”

“Fine, what car game do you want to play?” Jonny asked, conceding to Patrick’s point that it was unbelievably boring.

“The alphabet game!” Patrick volunteered immediately. Jonny gave him an unimpressed look, because there were almost no signs near them. “Um, okay, I don’t know. Any ideas?” He turned to the cameraman.

“I think the Kings are going to go back-to-back.” He answered with a mischievous smile.

“Oh no, you’re not going to try and wind us up for the cameras.” Patrick laughed for a moment before stopping abruptly. “But seriously, no way. Not going to happen.”

“Okay, fine, say you have to pick a team to win, but you can’t pick yourselves.”

“I still pick us.” Jonny replied with a shrug.

“But you can’t.” The cameraman argued. “That’s the point of the game.”

The next few hours were spent discussing pre-season speculation of the upcoming season, arguing awards and standings and who was the best at different things. Both members of the camera crew were knowledgeable about hockey, so it made for a good conversation to pass the time. Jonny and Patrick playfully chirped each other for the camera and for a little bit, Jonny was able to stop thinking about their kiss.

They finally pulled into what appeared to be a camp in the desert and turned the car off before grabbing their bags and rushing over to Phil.

“Patrick and Jonathan, you are team number one. As the winners of this leg of the race, you will be receiving a trip for two from Travelocity to Santorini.” Phil told them with a smile. “And welcome to your camp for the night. You can go ahead and pick your tent.”

They picked the one furthest from the mat, hoping to avoid the noise of people coming in late, and set their bags down before heading over to do interviews and grab some food.

Phil sat and ate with them along with some of the other crew members, and everyone shared fond memories of previous races. Just as Phil was finishing up a story about being so late to the mat that he was running up to the mat at the same time as the first place team, one of the assistants came over to let him know that the next team was going to be there shortly.

It was getting dark, so Jonny smiled in greeting to the twins when they came in second before nodding in the direction of their tent and heading off to bed. Patrick followed behind him, zipping the tent closed after they were both in.

“Patrick.” Jonny said, his voice low and his mind filled with a thousand questions, glad that they finally had an opportunity to escape and be alone.

“Not now, Jonny.” Patrick’s voice sounded fond and sad to Jonny’s ears. He stepped up so he was pressed against Jonny in the cramped tent and whispered in his ear. “Too many people, too thin of walls.” He pressed another kiss to Jonny’s lips and moved to step back, but Jonny caught him and pulled him in again, his own kiss rougher and needier than Patrick’s had been. Patrick kissed back for another moment before pressing a hand to Jonny’s chest and stepping back. “I’m sorry.”

“For doing it or for not being able to talk about it?” Jonny hissed as Patrick started to rummage in his backpack for pajamas.

“Don’t be an idiot, Tazer.” Patrick replied before stripping out of his clothes.

Jonny forced himself not to stare at Patrick in the darkness of the tent and instead turned to change into his own pajamas. He finished before Patrick and climbed into one of the sleeping bags. Patrick got into his own and stretched out facing Jonny.

“You’re the actual worst. I just want you to know that.” Jonny grumbled as he wiggled around in an attempt to get comfortable. The tent was cramped and there wasn’t much room between them already, but Patrick scooted closer.

“How was I supposed to know we’d be stuck in paper-thin tents?” Patrick defended himself.

“Next pit stop.” Jonny insisted, pulling out his captain voice to make the point.

“Good night, Jonny.” Patrick leaned across the gap between them to steal a light kiss before rolling onto his back to go to sleep.

Jonny reached out slowly and slid his fingers in the hand Patrick had left lying between them. Patrick squeezed tight for a moment with a small chuckle.

“Good night, Pat.”

 


	8. Leg 7: Morocco -> Russia

Jonny woke up before both Patrick and the alarm clock the next morning, stretching as he blinked awake. He turned onto his side to see Patrick only a few inches away. Part of him, the part that sounded far too much like Sharpy for his liking, wanted to pull some sort of prank on Patrick, but the rest of him simply wanted to touch. He wasn’t sure if he was allowed, but he decided to risk it.

Patrick stirred quietly as Jonny stroked his cheek softly, his eyes opening slowly as a smile spread across his face.

“Mmm, good morning, babe.” Patrick lifted his head up off of the pillow and Jonny met him in a soft kiss.

The kiss started out simple enough, but Jonny kept pressing harder to test where Patrick’s limit was, except that Patrick didn’t seem to have a limit. He gave back as good as he got, pulling Jonny down close to him so that they were on their sides, pressed together through their sleeping bags.

Just as the kiss was getting dirtier and Jonny was contemplating if actually getting off would be acceptable, even though they clearly needed to talk about what was happening, the alarm went off, snapping them back to the reality of the race.

“God fucking damnit, Kaner.” Jonny growled, stealing one more kiss before getting up to change and get ready.

The tent was still too dark to see very well, but Jonny turned away from Patrick anyway as he changed into his clothes for the day. He hated putting pants on while he was hard, so he tried to will his erection into submission, but it was far too interested in what they’d just been doing to calm down.

“Tonight, okay?” Patrick’s voice came from right behind him, causing Jonny to jump slightly in surprise.

Jonny took a deep breath, then turned around to find Patrick already back on his side of the tent and changing. Patrick shook his ass playfully with a wink back at Jonny before standing back up again with a clean shirt.

They finished getting ready, brushing their teeth in the station that had been set up with a makeshift sink and faucet. After their bags were packed up again, they walked over to the mat to greet their camera crew and get the clue to start the next leg.

“Make your way to St. Petersburg, Russia.” Jonny read the clue and they set off for where their car from the day before was parked, grumpy and frustrated, leaving Patrick and the camera crew to follow in his wake.

Patrick seemed to find Jonny’s frustration amusing this time because every time Jonny looked at him, he was barely hiding a grin.

The drive to the airport felt like it took forever, but in reality was only about twenty minutes. Jonny spent the entire trip stressing out in his own head while Patrick juggled giving directions and interacting with the camera crew.

Inside the airport, things moved smoothly and Patrick got their tickets for the first flight out with a layover in Zurich, but they only had a few minutes to make the flight. Patrick thanked the woman and they set off for security.

They got to the gate and checked in just in time for take-off. The camera crew were across the aisle and they talked a little for the cameras, speculating how long they’d be able to hold onto their lead and how they felt about going to Russia.

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll make us play some hockey.” Jonny joked, trying to get his mind off of everything. They answered a few leading questions about their fellow contestants before the cameras turned off and they were allowed some peace for a couple of hours during the flight.

“It’s going to be nice to go to Europe.” Patrick said in a quiet voice. “It’s usually a little easier and I feel like the tasks are either fun ones or ones that need a lot of strength.”

“Yeah.” Jonny turned his head to watch Patrick speak, eyes focusing on Patrick’s lips.

“I was thinking about giving our trips to the girlies and to Alan and Genny, by the way. I mean, we can afford to go to Greece or London whenever we want. Thoughts?”

“I think that’s a great idea. I figure we’ll give them part of the million, too.”

“Yeah?” Patrick laughed. “You know we’re going to win?”

“Patrick, it’s us. We can’t lose.” Jonny replied simply, but it felt like he meant something else. Patrick seemed to think so too, because his eyes darkened a little and he slowly licked his lips.

They stayed silent for a few more minutes, just watching each other, until the flight attendant came by for drink refills.

Once they disembarked in Zurich, they went to a little cafe in the airport to grab some coffee and food since they had a few hours before their connection. They settled into the gate with a deck of cards and the camera crew joined them for a few games, even teaching them a new game.

The boarding calls had just started for their flight and they were wrapping up their current game of Hearts when they heard familiar voices.

“Oh, thank god. Just made it.” Max, one of the skater dudes, was panting excitedly.

“Look who it is! We’ve been wondering where you two were.” The other one, Teddy, waved at them in greeting.

“The fast forward kept us ahead of everyone until now.” Jonny shrugged as he finished packing his things away. “Who else is on your flight?”

“The twins and that bitchy model couple.” Teddy answered. “How up to date are you on who got eliminated?”

“We don’t know anyone since the back-to-back non-elimination legs.” Patrick held a hand out and helped Jonny to his feet, keeping a hold on Jonny’s hand longer than necessary to give it a squeeze before letting go.

“Leah and Sara got out after that and last night it was those obnoxious hicks that were divorced and always angry.”

“So we’re down to eight.” Jonny shouldered his bag and stepped into the boarding line with Patrick and the camera crew right behind him.

Patrick opened his mouth to comment just as the models and the twins both came running up to the gate.

“We got all turned around.” One of the twins complained loudly, though Jonny didn’t know which one. “This place is confusing.”

The boarding process went smoothly once everyone was there and they were settled into their seats and ready for take-off quickly. The skater dudes were across the aisle this time and they caught Jonny and Patrick up a little more on what had been happening with the rest of the pack. Max told them that the next plane was about two and a half hours behind theirs.

Once they landed in St. Petersburg, the four teams agreed to work together to figure out where they were supposed to go. Jonny looked around outside and spotted the race flag just as one of the twins did as well. They all rushed over to grab clues next to the taxi stand.

“Detour. Block five shots or drink one shot.” Jonny burst into laughter as he read. “Either we have to put goalie pads on and block five shots or go do a shot of vodka off of a sword.”

“There isn’t a bad option here.” Teddy laughed from where they were reading the clue.

“This doesn’t seem fair.” The girl model whined with a glare in their direction.

“Obviously, we’re going to do the block five shots.” Jonny told the camera.

“I think we should drink.” Patrick grinned teasingly.

“Kaner, we are hockey players.” Jonny rolled his eyes and set off towards the taxi stand.

“Exactly. We’re good hockey players who’ve won two cups. That means we know how to drink.” Patrick continued to playfully argue. “Why can’t we do both?”

“When we get home, you can drink vodka shots off of a sword if you really want.” Jonny pushed him lightly into the back seat of the cab as he gave instructions to the driver.

They pulled up to the ice rink and hurried inside, asking the driver to wait for them. Goalie pads were waiting for them and they quickly got dressed, lacing up their skates and getting onto the ice quickly.

“Poor Crow. Goalie pads are just ridiculous.” Patrick laughed as they skated over towards the net to meet the instructor.

“You two stand in same goal and block shots. Five shots and I give you clue.” The man told them with a thick Russian accent. “Remember, they are professional hockey players. KHL team. SKA St. Petersburg.” He gestured towards the skaters who were clearly waiting for their turn.

“Wait, we get to block together?” Jonny asked, making sure he understood correctly.

“Yes.” The man turned and skated off, nodding at the line of skaters.

The players weren’t taking difficult shots, the challenge obviously meant to be doable by the racers who were not hockey players. Jonny and Patrick stood next to each other in the net and stopped 5 out of 6, earning them their clue.

As they were stripping off their gear, Patrick started laughing and Jonny joined in until he noticed the instructor and several of the skaters looking at them like they had lost their minds.

“What?” The man asked, voice gruff. One of the skaters answered back in rapid-fire Russian and the man turned to look at him. “Makarov says you are NHL players?”

Jonny turned to look at where one of the players was taking off his helmet and chuckling at them both.

“Holy shit, Makarov.” Patrick skated back onto the ice, hand outstretched for a handshake.

Makarov shook his hand and Jonny’s as he spoke to the man a bit more in Russian.

“I tell him you are the one the Blackhawks pick before me and you are the right wing who keep me from team.” He told them, a smile on his face. Someone else skated up, clearly chirping him in Russian.

“They tell us this is for American game show. NHL not pay you enough?” When he got close enough, Jonny realized it was Ilya Kovalchuk.

“Kovy!” Jonny said in surprise. “No, Kaner was just bored and things got crazy and now here we are, apparently.”

“I always hear you two are weird about each other. I did not realize it is like that.” He lifted an eyebrow at them.

“Oh, no, it’s not-” Jonny started to protest and then stopped himself because it didn’t feel right to protest with everything going on. He realized half a beat too late that it doesn’t matter to Kovalchuk and Makarov, but Patrick was on top of things.

“We’re just codependent best friends.” Patrick shrugged with a laugh. “Well, we really do have to get going because it is a race, but it was nice to see you both.” He bumped fists with both Kovalchuk and Makarov before skating off. Jonny did the same and they got back into street gear. They waved goodbye and opened their clue.

“Make you way to the Neighborhood Store in Alexandrovskaya.” Jonny read from the paper. They rushed back to their taxi and drove for a while before pulling up in front of a little building with a clue box and a group of women outside.

“Okay, Roadblock. Who's ready for a Russian drag race?” Patrick looked at Jonny. “It’s your turn, babe.”

“Alright, fine, whatever.” Jonny replied, eyeing the table full of what looked like dresses before opening the clue that instructed him to put on one of the dresses and then plant fifty potatoes. “I fucking hate you.”

“You do not.” Patrick laughed without even attempting to hide it. “Get dressed up, babushka. Oh god, I can’t wait for this to be captured forever.”

Jonny rolled his eyes and pulled a red dress over his head. One of the women held out a bandana and he looked at it in confusion for a moment before taking it and tying it around his head.

He threw one last glare in Patrick’s direction for good measure before running down the path marked by race flags. There were several stacks of potatoes in front of the first house he came across with a tag that told him to take them to the wheelbarrows at Duck’s End. He slung a bag over his shoulder and took back off down the row, camera crew hot on his trail.

The wheelbarrows were flipped upside down, so he righted one of them and found another tag. This one told him to fill it with manure and take both the wheelbarrow and the potatoes to the marked field. He pressed his lips together for a moment, silently cursing Patrick for the whole situation, before grabbing a shovel and loading the wheelbarrow from the pile of manure.

Once the wheelbarrow was full, he took it back down the path until he saw race flags. A few women were waiting for him and he went over to them. One of the women started to give him instructions in Russian, demonstrating as she spoke. Jonny had no idea what she was saying, but he could see that he was supposed to dig a hole, put in some manure, put in a potato, and then fill the hole back up.

He was about half-way done when one of the twins came up with her own wheelbarrow.

“Hi. Jonny, right?” She smiled and waved.

“Yeah. You’ll have to forgive me, but I have no idea which one you are.” He admitted, causing her to grin at him.

“I’m Ramona.” She informed before getting to work on her own demonstration.

Just as he was finishing up, Teddy and the male model came up the path. He could hear the model loudly bitching that he shouldn’t have to wear a dress, but Teddy was just mostly ignoring him.

“Dude, Seth, get over it. No one cares.” Teddy told him before going to get started on his row of potatoes.

“Good luck!” Jonny called over his shoulder after being handed his clue, running down the path back to where Patrick was waiting.

Patrick grabbed the clue excitedly from him before taking a half-step back.

“Holy shit, man. You smell awful.”

“Yeah, I’ve been shoveling cow manure. Open the fucking clue.” Jonny snapped.

“Alright, alright. I’m going. Make your way to the next Pit Stop at Catherine’s Palace.”

“Come on!” Jonny rushed them towards the street, flagging down a cab quickly.

The cab ride seemed to drag on forever, taking almost an hour to get to the opposite side of the city and down to the palace. It didn’t help Jonny’s psyche that Patrick kept chirping him for smelling bad. He wanted to bitch back, but bit his tongue for the sake of the cameras, aware that he was just frustrated because he wanted the leg to be over already.

When they finally pulled up in front of the palace, Jonny grabbed his bag and left Patrick to pay the cab fare. They jogged up to Phil, who was smiling at them.

“Patrick and Jonathan, you are team number one. As the winners of this leg of the race, you have won a trip for two to Tahiti.” He told them. “Third time in a row in first place. Do you think you can keep it up?”

“We’d love to win more legs, but it’s the last leg that matters the most, and as long as we win that, I’m happy with however we finish in all the other ones.” Patrick answered. “Well, as long as my partner here gets a shower soon, that is.”

They said goodbye to Phil and were ushered into a van to their hotel.

“Okay, let’s do interviews real quick and then you’re free to go.” Their sound operator told them when they got to the hotel.

“I’m going to take a shower and change out of this dress first.” Jonny told them curtly.

“Orders are to get everyone still dressed up for the interviews.” The sound guy shrugged at him.

“Fine. Lead the way.”

The interviews took far too long for Jonny’s liking and even though he’d been impatiently waiting to talk to Patrick all day, he headed straight for the shower when they got into the room. It felt wonderful to rinse off, replacing the smell of the manure with the scent of the hotel-issued soap and shampoo.

When he came out from the shower, he rummaged in his bag and pulled out a change of clothes, dressing before leaving the room. Normally with Patrick, he’d just go back out in his underwear, but he wasn’t sure where they stood at the moment, so he put clothes on to be safe.

“I know, I know.” Patrick said as soon as he opened the door. “It’s time to talk, but I have food here, too. Come and sit.” Patrick gestured at the plates that were sitting on the bed closer to the door.

“Patrick.” Jonny couldn’t keep the fondness out of his voice as he sat down and took a few appreciative bites from his plate. He opened his mouth to say something, but Patrick cut him off.

“My turn to do the talking. You’ve had your chance.” He informed Jonny sternly. “Do you have any idea how many years I’ve been waiting for you to get with the picture? Wondering what I had to do to make it any more obvious?”

“What?” Jonny croaked out, stunned for a moment.

“I had plans to have some big talk, but it’s just not that difficult. It’s the only thing we’ve ever been out of step with each other on, but we’ve always been on the same page, haven’t we? We just didn’t know it. Or, well, you didn’t know it.” Patrick sighed and Jonny did his best to untangle what Patrick was trying to say. “I wanted to give you time and space to figure it out on your own. I wasn’t sure if you were aware of your own feelings, so I didn’t push.” He paused to lick his lips. “But, fuck, Jonny. I can’t take the waiting anymore. I love you and you love me, too.”

“I know.” Jonny answered quietly. “Patrick, I was never unaware of how I felt about you. I’ve loved you since we were nineteen. I just didn’t realize until recently that you loved me back.”

“How recently?” Patrick asked, smiling and biting at his lip knowingly.

“Shut up.” Jonny pushed their plates aside and leaned in to brush a few soft kisses against Patrick’s lips.

“What did you think all the kisses were about, then, if you just realized it?”

“I thought you just wanted some sort of race fling or something. I don’t know.” Jonny’s kisses got harder, more desperate. “Does it matter?”

“Race fling? Jonny, honestly?” Patrick chuckled against his mouth. “What, like the Battaglias and their stupid ‘race girlfriends?’” Jonny thought back to how the Battaglias had constantly referred to the girls in their alliance as their race girlfriends and scoffed.

“No, not like that.” Jonny shook his head. “Just, I don’t know. I was worried you were just getting lonely.”

“You’re an idiot.” Patrick rolled his eyes. “No, really. You’re a fucking moron, Tazer.”

“You could’ve said something, too, you know.” Jonny pointed out, pressing harder into Patrick so he couldn’t respond. Instead, Patrick just shifted to try and get Jonny on top of him. Jonny followed the press of Patrick’s hands on his sides and moved so he had Patrick pinned down to the mattress.

He could feel Patrick hard against him and he had to fight to keep from thrusting his hips too hard. Instead, he rolled his hips down to slide their cocks together, too many layers separating them but still so good.

Jonny leaned down to bite at Patrick’s neck, his ears, his jaw as one hand slid down to unbutton Patrick’s jeans, fingers fumbling distractedly. Patrick’s hands moved to do the same, getting Jonny’s jeans open before helping Jonny with his own. They both shimmied their pants and boxers down just enough so that the next time Jonny pressed down, it was skin on skin.

“Fuck, Jonny.” Patrick groaned, his hips jerking up to meet Jonny’s next move. “Could’ve been doing this for fucking years, fuck.”

Jonny couldn’t think straight long enough to say anything in response, so he went back to kissing Patrick instead, filthy and heady as he quickened the pace of his hips. He couldn’t decide what to do with his hands, what he wanted most. Bracing himself with one hand, he ran the other one down Patrick’s chest and then up under his shirt, pausing to rub over a nipple and earning a hiss from Patrick in reward. He slid it down the muscles of Patrick’s stomach, through the edges of the wiry curls that weren’t being obstructed by his own body, until they settled in the hollow of Patrick’s hip, squeezing lightly and then digging in.

“Fuck, I’m so fucking close.” Patrick started talking again. “I can’t wait to blow you. You can fuck my throat next time until I can’t even speak properly. The cameras will catch it all and you’ll know why it is that I have to go to whole day without a voice, remember that it’s from your cock.” Jonny moved his hand up to tug on Patrick’s curls, torn between pressing his eyes closed at the sensory overload of Patrick’s body and cock and voice or keeping them open to let it overwhelm him. “Fuck, yeah, pull my hair. We’ll watch the episodes at home and I bet you’ll get so hot that we’ll have to stop the episode so you can do it again. Make me go to practice with my throat all scratchy from your cock.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Jonny bit down on Patrick’s collarbone hard and came between them, getting it all over both of their stomachs and shirts and the bed. He thrusted a few more times against Patrick’s still hard cock, oversensitive at the continued stimulation, and Patrick came a few moments later, indiscernible noises falling from his lips.

Jonny collapsed on top of Patrick and they just stayed pressed together and panting for a while, coming down from their orgasms. Jonny was just starting to feel the faint edges of sleep coming in when Patrick started to laugh under him.

“Hmm?” Jonny mumbled, still trying to hold on to the warmth of sleep that was creeping over him.

“Now you’re my race girlfriend.” Patrick teased. “You should put that dress back on for your race boyfriend.”

“I hate you.” Jonny groaned and stood up, pouting and stomping into the bathroom to clean up.

“You do not.” Patrick walked in behind him, stripping down and cleaning up as well. When they were both naked and significantly less sticky, Patrick pressed up behind Jonny, wrapping his arms around him and pressing his forehead into Jonny’s neck. “You love me.”

“Yeah, I do.” Jonny met Patrick’s eyes in the mirror and smiled for a moment before rolling his eyes and squirming away. “You’re turning me into a fucking sap.”

“Whatever. You were just a closet sap.” Patrick grabbed their plates and the remote before settling in on the other bed. “Come on. Let’s eat and then get some sleep.”

Jonny shuffled over and took his plate before settling in next to Patrick, close enough that their thighs were pressed together. He picked at it for a bit, taking a few bites while Patrick flipped through channels, thinking about Patrick’s earlier comment.

“It may not be our hockey news, but it’s Russia, so at least there’s some hockey news.” Patrick left the TV on a channel that was showing some sort of hockey story in Russian.

“You are though, right?” Jonny asked, not realizing until he saw Patrick’s confused expression that Patrick had no idea what he was asking. “Um, boyfriend? Not just a race boyfriend, though. Like, for real, even when we go home?” He felt uncomfortable asking, but he had to know.

“Of course.” Patrick leaned in to kiss him again. “I know you’re a total control freak, so you can decide who gets to know and all that, but no matter who we do or don’t tell, at least between us, of course we’re boyfriends.” Patrick paused to frown. “Even if that does make me feel like we’re in high school all over again. Boyfriends? Partners? Lovers? No, I think that might be worse.”

“Patrick.” Jonny pursed his lips to hold back a grin.

“We can discuss it later, but either way, yes to all of the above and any other related labels. Now eat your chicken and watch this weird KHL show with me.”

 


	9. Leg 8: Russia -> Austria

Jonny woke the next morning to the smell of coffee and eggs, but grumbled and rolled away from where Patrick was poking him in the side.

“Wakey wakey, eggs and, uh, coffee.” Patrick chuckled and Jonny felt a kiss being pressed into his hair.

“Fuck off.” Jonny told his pillow, not bothering to lift his head. “It’s supposed to be ‘bakey.’”

“You’re such an asshole in the morning. There wasn’t any bacon. Come on, we’ve got to eat and then get going. I even found out who got eliminated, but I’m not telling until you get that huge ass of yours out of bed.”

Jonny rolled onto his back, reached out, and yanked Patrick down on top of him, kissing him good morning in an attempt to shut him up.

“Nope. You need to get up and brush your teeth before that’ll work, even if you are sexy as fuck all naked in my bed.” Patrick rolled away and started to fish around in Jonny’s bag for some clothes. “Here you go. Now go get ready.”

Jonny took the clothes from Patrick’s hands, tossing them down onto the other bed before going into the bathroom to get ready. When he came back into the room a few minutes later, Patrick had packed everything up and was watching TV. He stopped watching the TV to watch Jonny get dressed instead.

“Are you sure we don’t have time before we have to go?” Jonny shimmied his hips a little more than necessary as he pulled his jeans on.

“You are the worst.” Patrick groaned and looked like he was debating it for a moment. “No, we have to go now or we’ll be late.”

“Fine, but I will make you regret it.” Jonny grinned at him.

“I look forward to it.” Patrick challenged back, standing and pulling Jonny into a sloppy kiss that lasted far too long. By the time they pulled away, they only had two minutes to be at the van.

“Fuck, alright, let’s go.” Jonny shouldered his bag and they ran out together, laughing as they hurried down the hall. They got into the van just in time to be whisked away to the palace for their first clue of the leg. “So, who got eliminated?”

“The blondies. Apparently their flight got delayed out of Morocco and then they missed the connection along with those married lawyers. I guess the lawyers are going to be a couple of hours behind the pack trying to play catch-up, so they’ll probably go out next.”

They pulled up to the palace a few minutes later and got out to meet the camera crew and receive their next clue.

“Woah, Roadblock already. Don’t even have to travel to get it.” Patrick pulled the envelope out in surprise. “Who's got a taste for the good life?”

“Your turn, Peeks. I can only hope it is as horrific as mine was yesterday.” Jonny teased as Patrick opened the roadblock clue.

“Make your way on foot to the Old Tower Restaurant and eat one kilogram of caviar. Only the player completing the roadblock may obtain directions and must navigate without the help of their partner.” Patrick set off towards the road as soon as he was finished reading and found a group of local girls. “English?”

A few of the girls giggled and another girl nodded.

“Yes?”

“Where is the Old Tower Restaurant?” He asked her. She leaned in close to give him directions, placing a hand on his muscles as she pointed out directions. Jonny couldn’t help the flare of jealousy and wanted to rip her hand off of Patrick, but he just waited until Patrick had thanked her and followed him down the road, throwing a glare back at the girls, who were all giggling once again.

He compensated by walking a little too close to Patrick, but he didn’t care. Patrick just turned and gave him a soft smile when the cameras weren’t pointed towards them before continuing down the road.

Once they got to the restaurant, they followed the race flags to a room filled with tables. Patrick sat down at the first one and looked down at the giant bowl of caviar.

“I didn’t think it was going to be that bad, but wow. This thing is huge.” Patrick grabbed the spoon and started to dig in, shoveling spoonful after spoonful.

A quarter of the way through the bowl, the models came in, followed shortly by the skater dudes.

The girl was doing the challenge for the models, and even though Jonny had barely seen them be civil to one another, her partner was soothing her as she whined her way through the bowl. She would take a bite, break out into tears, and stop until she was coaxed into another bite, just to repeat the process again. Jonny and Patrick exchanged amused looks as Patrick was getting to his last few bites.

“Do you need me to rub your back and tell you how pretty you are?” Jonny asked dryly when Patrick paused for a moment to let his stomach settle.

“Always.” Patrick teased back, fluttering his eyelashes in an over-the-top flirtatious gesture.

“You are such a dork. Come on. Last few bites.” Jonny nodded towards the bowl.

“I’m going, I’m going.” Patrick huffed and scraped up the last two spoonfuls. “Done.”

The waiter came over to check the bowl before giving them a thumbs up and their clue.

“Make your way to the Pillar of St. Anne in Innsbruck, Austria.” Patrick read before they headed out to flag down a cab to the airport.

At the airport, Jonny talked to the ticket agent and got tickets for a direct flight leaving in an two hours, so they got through security and settled in at the gate.

By the time they were ready to board the flight, their card game had reverted to the simplicity of Go Fish and had been extended to include both the skater dudes and the twins, though the models had opted to sit far away and glare at them.

“I know the girlies and the Irish team are only a couple of hours behind us and then the lawyers will be a few hours behind them.” One of the twins said thoughtfully as they watched for anyone else to show up. “I don’t think any of them can make this flight, but there’s another one in an hour and a half, so that still gives them the chance to join back up with us.”

No one else showed up for their flight, and they boarded without issue. Once they were settled in and up at cruising altitude for the next couple of hours, Jonny grabbed one of the standard issue blankets and covered himself up, moving the arm rest up and offering to share with Patrick as they worked on their notebook.

Jonny waited until he knew the cameras were off for the rest of the plane ride before snaking his hand into Patrick’s lap. He stroked at the inside of Patrick’s thigh lightly, just pressing enough to tease. Patrick’s eyes immediately rolled back and he bit his lip, not expecting the movement.

“Jonny.” He hissed, so quiet that Jonny barely heard it.

“I warned you.” Jonny shrugged in response, turning back to the notebook but continuing to stroke Patrick with his left hand.

Patrick let it continue for far longer than Jonny expected before grabbing Jonny’s wrist to stop him.

“Let me out. I’m going to the bathroom.” He adjusted himself in his pants and moved to stand up.

“Absolutely not.” Jonny grinned. “Sit back down.”

“No.” Patrick argued back and they stared each other down for a while before Patrick sighed and flopped back down into his seat, pulling the blanket over himself once more. “Fine, but then you have to stop.”

“Alright. I’ll stop for now.” Jonny conceded, tapping the notebook. “Anything else from this last leg that you think is noteworthy?”

“Did you include how you came all over me last night?” Patrick leaned in close to whisper before shifting back and closing his eyes. “I’m taking a nap.”

Jonny fought a groan and didn’t need to hear him say it to know that Patrick was thinking _two can play at this game._

“Hey, these people gave us directions to the place we need to go.” Teddy leaned back to tell Jonny, gesturing at the people across the aisle. “Want them?”

“Sure, thank you!” Jonny leaned forward with the notebook to copy them down before thanking them again and settling in for a nap himself.

After getting off of the plane in Innsbruck, they headed out to the parking lot to see race flags near a line of cars. They threw their bags in the trunk of the closest one and Jonny sat down to drive.

The drive only took about ten minutes before they were arriving at the pillar. They parked the car and ran towards the clue box, seeing the skater dudes and the twins coming up from a different way.

Jonny got to the clue box first and grabbed the clue before stepping aside to let them in.

“Detour. Skate or Sled.”

“Skate.” Patrick answered without waiting to hear what they were. “Always skate.”

“Unless there’s booze?”

“Duh.” Patrick rolled his eyes. “What do we have to do?”

“Either go down the bobsled track or skate in a relay.” Jonny read the instructions. “Both are closed until eight.”

“Skate, obviously.”

They ran back to the car, stopping to ask for directions and getting a map from a street vendor first, and headed towards the ice rink.

“Two skating challenges? It’s like they want us to win.” Patrick laughed as Jonny pulled away from the curb. Patrick interacted with the cameras and gave the directions as Jonny drove them to the rink. When they got there, it was still another three hours until opening. They took the number for the first spot and headed back to the car.

“Let’s try and get some sleep just in case.” Jonny suggested, even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep.

“Pre-skate nap?” Patrick grinned and looked over at the camera crew.

“We’re going to go charge our equipment in the van and do some updates and stuff, so you’ll have the car to yourselves until this opens.” Their camera operator told them with a smile. She gestured towards the race van that was parking to the side by some trees.

They climbed into the car and put their seats down, rolling onto their sides to face each other.

“Do you think they have the cars bugged?” Jonny asked, glancing around the car suspiciously.

“I don’t know. Wouldn’t put it past them, though. Anything to make for some interesting TV.” Patrick shrugged against his chair.

“I just, yeah.” Jonny looked away from Patrick, embarrassed with himself for how bashful he felt because this was Patrick and there was no need for that.

“I just yeah, too.” Patrick grinned and stuck his foot out to poke Jonny’s leg.

“We really should at least try to sleep.” Jonny instructed, trying to sound stern and missing by a mile.

“We’re just going to do this and then go to the Pit Stop. It’s barely even a twelve hour leg. I’m not too worried about it.”

“It’s either that or talk about some improvements we can make on the power play.”

“Go ahead and talk. I know you want to. I’ll just sit here and listen and nod when you want me to nod.” Patrick teased. “It’s your one chance to get me to almost blindly agree with you.”

Jonny sighed, resolved to the fact that sleeping was a pretty unreasonable expectation. He started off talking hockey for a while before switching topics to what they should do with the rest of their break and then a little bit of strategy talk, making sure to stay clear of the one thing he really wanted to talk to Patrick about, just in case they did bug the cars.

It felt painfully obvious to him that he was purposefully avoiding the topic, and he knew Patrick understood, but he couldn’t help but worry the producers would know something was up. He was worried about how they’d edit things together and what they’d show.

Finally, the sun started to come up and they stretched their legs before walking over to the doors for the opening.

“Okay, you skate second and fourth in the relay.” The instructor told them, handing them each a pair of speed skates.

“Oh, fuck, we have to skate in these?” Patrick asked with a frown at them. “This will be interesting. Any possibility you have some hockey skates?”

“No, just these.” The woman gave them a confused look.

“Just adds to the fun, right, Patrick?” Jonny nudged him as he sat down next to Patrick on the bench. “We’re hockey players.” He told the woman for explanation of Patrick’s bad mood.

They laced up and the longer blades definitely felt strange to Jonny, but manageable.

Even with the different skates, they still managed to complete the relay easily, laughing at their good fortune as they put their shoes back on and opened the clue.

“Make your way to Phil at the Nord Park Seegrube Station.” Jonny read, pausing for a second. “Doesn’t say Pit Stop.” He pointed out and Patrick nodded knowingly.

“Yeah, yeah. You told me so on the sleep thing, but you couldn’t sleep either.” Patrick led the way back to the car, once again letting Jonny drive.

They drove over to the meeting spot with Phil, bickering playfully for the cameras the whole way. When they pulled into the parking lot, they could see Phil waiting for them.

“Welcome to Austria.” The woman next to him told them.

“Patrick and Jonathan, you are team number one. However, here’s your next clue. You are still racing.” He help out a clue envelope to them.

 


	10. Leg 9: Austria -> Germany

“We figured.” Patrick told him, smiling as he tore into the clue. “Roadblock. Who will welcome the chance to dangle for a while? It is a good thing it’s your turn, because that does not look like a good time.”

Jonny looked up at the gondolas going up the cables near them and realized what the task was.

“Alright, let’s go.” Jonny jogged over to where the gondolas were loading. Once he was strapped into the safety harness and the camera rig, the gondola began to move up the cable. “Fucking Kaner always gets the easy stuff.” He told the camera, sassy but still painfully fond to his own ears.

They stopped part-way up and the instructor turned to ask him if he was ready.

“Uh, no, but let’s do this.”

They clipped his gear onto the rescue cable and he stepped out to start his descent. Once he got started, it wasn’t that bad, particularly considering he was going down instead of up. It wasn’t a difficult task by any means and he could see where Patrick was cheering him on from the ground.

When his feet finally touched back down on solid ground, assistants helped him out of all the gear before handing him his next clue. Patrick came up next to him and opened the clue.

“Drive to the Bobsled Track in Schönau am Königsee, Germany. Warning, there is a U-Turn ahead.” Patrick read and then started in the direction of the car.

“Hold on. This drive is probably going to take a while. Bathroom break before we go real quick.” Jonny suggested, turning to head toward the building with the bathrooms. Both of the girls on their camera crew agreed and went to the women’s bathroom on the other side.

As soon as they were inside the bathroom, Jonny checked that no one was in there with them before pushing Patrick up against the wall and kissing him thoroughly.

“Fuck, Tazer.” Patrick’s voice was breathy as he tried to press his hips against Jonny’s.

“We better finish this stupid extra long leg soon because I cannot wait until we get to the hotel room to just fucking wreck you.” Jonny kissed him again, roughly and desperate before pulling away. “Fuck, c’mon. They’re going to wonder where we went if we don’t get back out there soon.”

Jonny stepped across the bathroom to pee and Patrick followed.

“Should this be weird?” Patrick mused, causing Jonny to laugh in response.

“Shit, don’t make me laugh, Kaner.”

“I’m just wondering. I mean, is this acceptable now that we’re in a relationship?”

“I’m not going to overthink it.” Jonny zipped back up and went to wash his hands, followed shortly after by Patrick.

“Hey, wait.” Patrick grabbed at his wrist and the slight dampness of his hands from the ineffective hand driers was like a cooling shock to Jonny’s heated system. Patrick tugged him close for one more kiss, quick and chaste but clearly a promise. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Peeks.” Jonny responded by squeezing Patrick’s hand and then letting go before opening the door.

Outside, the girls were just coming out of their own bathroom, so they set back off towards the car. Patrick unfolded the map they’d bought, which showed all of Austria and some of Germany.

“Fuckin’ sweet, it’s on this map.” He said in triumph as he found the city they were going to. “It’s basically between here and Salzburg. Get back on the main road and I’ll give you directions from there.”

The drive was over two hours, but they passed the time by playing silly car games that the camera crew came up with.

“Okay, virtual hide-and-seek.” The sound operator said as they turned down a smaller road. “Pretend you’re somewhere in a house and then we guess where you are.”

The camera operator looked back at her for a second before they all burst into laughter.

“What?” Patrick asked, incredulous through his laughter.

“It works better on my kids, since we all live in the same house, I suppose.” The sound operator agreed with a shrug and another chuckle.

“How about ‘Guess How Far Away That Is?’” The camera operator suggested. “We pick something, guess how far away it is, and then watch the odometer to see if we’re right.”

“I have the upper hand over all of you Americans though, because this is Europe and we have to use kilometers.” Jonny grinned, knowing his competitiveness was obvious all over his face.

They played a few rounds of it before switching to a different game, continuing to get bored quickly until they pulled into the parking lot for their next task. They ran up to the clue box and the U-Turn board.

“We choose not to U-Turn anyone.” Patrick said to the cameras and Jonny opened their next clue.

“Okay, Detour. Balancing Dolly or Austrian Folly. Either ride Segways or throw pies at a target.”

“Throw pies.” Patrick said, an evil grin spreading across his face. “You know it.”

“Alright, Austrian Folly.” Jonny agreed and they headed down the marked path. He didn’t remember this challenge from when they’d been watching the show, so he assumed they just hadn’t gotten to that season.

When they entered the tent, there was a sign with further instructions.

“The target is your partner’s face. Once you find the pie with the cherry filling, the Maestro will hand you your next clue.” Jonny finished reading and turned to look at Patrick, who was practically vibrating with excitement. “You knew we had to throw them at each other, didn’t you?”

“You fell asleep during this episode.” Patrick headed in and grabbed a pie, throwing it and hitting Jonny right in the face. “Holy shit! It’s the right one on the first try!”

Jonny blinked at him through the cream covering his face and wiped away both the cream and the cherry filling, still slightly stunned at what had just happened.

“You fucker.” Jonny grabbed one of the pies and Patrick turned to run away. They chased each other around the tent for a few moments, but Patrick stumbled over one of the tables and ended up on his back. He tried to scramble back to his feet and get away, but Jonny got there first, plopping down on top of Patrick to pin him before smearing the pie in his face. He made sure to get some in Patrick’s curls before pulling the tin away.

“Call it even?” Patrick asked, licking the cream off his lips and trying to scrape as much as he could off of his face.

“Alright.” Jonny agreed, but knew better than to trust Patrick. He stood up and helped Patrick to his feet before turning and grabbing another pie just as Patrick did the same.

They wasted another ten pies or so in their battle before the Maestro came over and held out their clue, clearly ready for them to leave and stop making a mess.

“Sorry. Thank you.” Jonny took the clue and gave Patrick a death glare as he went to pick up another pie.

“Yeah, sorry.” Patrick agreed, coming over to stand next to Jonny and open the clue.

“Drive yourselves to the Pit Stop at Siegestor, the Victory Gate, in Munich, Germany.” Jonny tucked the clue away and grabbed Patrick’s wrist. “Let’s hurry.”

They got back into the car and Patrick pulled the map back out, quickly figuring out the way to head towards Munich and giving Jonny directions to get started before pinpointing exactly where they were going.

Jonny felt uncomfortably on edge the whole drive, impatiently ready to get out of the car and into a room with Patrick. He selfishly considered throwing the race for a few minutes just to be able to go to the city the eliminated contestants were staying at so he could spend the rest of the race fucking Patrick silly, but his competitiveness quickly killed that idea.

He looked up and caught Patrick’s eyes in the rearview mirror and Patrick’s smile widened knowingly. Patrick winked quickly before looking back down to the map and Jonny had to change trains of thought before the cameras caught any sort of tightening in his pants.

Games in the car became more sparse as they got into Munich and Patrick had to navigate Jonny through the unfamiliar roads. After a few times of getting turned around, they eventually found the Victory Gate and parked nearby, grabbing their bags and running for the mat. It’d been so long since they’d seen the other teams that Jonny wasn’t sure where in the pack they were, but he assumed they were relatively high up.

“Welcome to Germany.” The man next to Phil told them.

“Patrick and Jonathan, you are team number…” He paused with a sly look before continuing on. “Two! Congratulations! Oh, and I see we have another team on their way up.”

Jonny turned around to see Teddy and Max running up and joining them on the mat.

“Teddy and Max, you are team number three!” Phil turned to them.

They all shook hands and headed for the van, climbing in and pressing close together in the cramped space.

“Backseats of mini-vans are not made to fit four grown men.” Teddy laughed at them as they squished together.

“Who was ahead of us?” Jonny asked, curious. No one else had been at the skating detour, so he assumed that’s where the change had come in.

“That stupid model couple. They beat us to pulling numbers for the bobsled. As we were finishing up, people started coming in from the second plane, so they’re probably not too far behind us.” Max answered. “The bobsled was super fast, but if you were second, you had to wait for like twenty minutes so they could set it up again. We ended up u-turning the twins, just to be safe. They’re probably going to hate us forever, but they should still be safe with the lawyers so far behind. We just didn’t want to risk it.”

The hotel they pulled up in front of wasn’t too far from the pit stop and they were all whisked away to do post-leg interviews before dinner.

“I can’t wait to get you back to the hotel room.” Jonny leaned over to whisper in Patrick’s ear while the camera crew was getting set up. “I have so many ideas for you. Should I strip you down and hold you to the bed while I jerk us both off? Or maybe I’ll just get myself off while you watch. Hmm, maybe you’d like it if I push you up against the door and sucked your cock until you couldn’t see straight?” Patrick sucked in a breath through his teeth and Jonny grinned. “Duly noted.”

“Alright, boys. This shouldn’t take long.” Their camera operator sat down opposite them. “You ready?”

They answered all of the prompts and only took about twenty minutes to do all of the shots for the double-leg. As soon as they were finished, they were shooed out of the room to go eat and sleep.

“Not going to be doing much sleeping.” Jonny joked as the door clicked closed.

“Fuck, Jonny.” Patrick glanced around to check for anyone before adjusting himself in his jeans.

“Let’s get to the room.” At Jonny’s command, Patrick immediately set off for the stairs, pulling their key out to double-check the room number.

Patrick fumbled the key in the door lock for a moment before finally getting it open. Jonny pushed him in impatiently, desperate to get him behind a locked door. Once the door was shut behind them, Jonny shoved Patrick up against it, fumbling with the deadbolt as he kissed Patrick, forceful and needy.

Patrick started to whine and push his hips forward, obviously trying to get some friction, and Jonny took that as encouragement to drop to his knees.

“Oh, fuck.” Patrick groaned as Jonny started to unbuckle his pants, trailing kisses along the sensitive skin above Patrick’s waistband.

“I meant what I offered, Peeks. That what you want?” Jonny asked, punctuating the question with a nip of his teeth.

“Anything, anything.” Patrick told him, his pupils blown already and his cock straining against the front of his boxers.

Jonny tugged down on his pants and Patrick helped by giving a little shimmy until his cock sprang free, bouncing just a few inches from Jonny’s face. His mouth watered at the sight and he leaned forward to swirl his tongue just around the head, earning him a loud curse from Patrick.

“You have to be quiet, babe. Wouldn’t want anyone walking by and hearing, would you?” Jonny warned, licking a few slow stripes up and down Patrick’s length between sentences.

“Don’t even care.” Patrick mumbled out, thrusting his hips forward again.

“What about when we’re home?” Another lick all the way up. “Teammates on either side of us.” An open-mouthed kiss to one side of Patrick’s cock. “Me fucking you up against the wall.” The same on the other side. “Gonna keep quiet for me then?” A lap at the slit, beading with precome. “Or are you gonna scream my name and let everyone know just how good you are for your captain?” He sank down quickly, taking all of Patrick’s cock in at once and sucking hard, earning a wild buck of Patrick’s hips in surprise.

Patrick’s noises were unstoppable at that point, but Jonny was past caring as he started up a quick pace, his own cock pressing painfully against his jeans. He struggled for a moment but managed to get his pants unbuttoned without having to stop what he was doing, and moaned around Patrick as he got his hand on himself.

He could care less about the fact that anyone walking by could hear Patrick’s pleading of “Jonny, please, Jonny, fuck yeah, fuck, Jonny,” too caught up in annoyance that they didn’t have lube or condoms with them. He wanted to sink into Patrick, fuck him hard against every surface of their hotel room, leave messy streaks all over.

Jonny lifted his free hand to Patrick’s mouth and Patrick took a second to get with the program before sucking his fingers in and licking them until they were nice and wet.

“Jonny.” Patrick said after Jonny removed his fingers from his mouth. “I, fuck, I have-”

“What?” Jonny pulled off, impatient at Patrick’s slow, distracted speech.

Patrick’s face went through a few different expression for a moment, caused presumably by the lack of wet heat around him.

“Never mind. It’s fine.” He shook his head, pressing his cock forward and smearing precome across Jonny’s lips. Jonny took the hint and sank down again, this time pressing a spit-slick finger at Patrick’s hole.

The angle was awkward because Patrick was standing, but he still managed to make it work. He worked one finger in, testing Patrick’s reaction by moving it in and out slowly. When Patrick seemed adjusted to the intrusion, he crooked his finger just right and Patrick swore loudly.

“Fuck, Jonny, I’m gonna come. Fuck, fuck, fuu-” Jonny ignored Patrick’s warnings and sucked harder, stroking his finger over and over on the same spot as Patrick came hard down his throat, spasming through several aftershocks as Jonny swallowed a few more times.

Patrick fell down to his knees, crowding in on Jonny and grabbing his cock, lacing his fingers in with Jonny’s. A few strokes later, Jonny came too, coating both of their hands before collapsing backwards in exhaustion, taking an unbalanced Patrick down with him.

They both curled up together for a moment before laughing happily.

“Love you, Tazer.” Patrick pressed a sloppy kiss to his cheek before standing up and offering a hand. “Now let’s get some food.”

They both cleaned up and fixed their clothes until they were acceptably dressed for being in public. Jonny moved to open the door, but Patrick stopped him to steal a few more kisses before letting them leave.

All of the teams were sitting in the dining room except for the lawyers when Jonny and Patrick finally managed to make their way down. Patrick pushed Jonny towards the tables and walked up to get them both food.

“Hey.” Jonny sat down in one of the open seats at a table with the girlies and Genny. “Been a while since we’ve seen you guys!”

“Don’t even. Where have you been for the past half-hour?” Genny asked with a grin. “The girls clued me in on the situation.” She glanced towards where Patrick was almost finished filling plates for each of them at the buffet and chatting with Allen. Jonny followed her eyesight and then turned back to the three grinning girls.

“No comment?” Jonny tried, not knowing how serious they were or how much they actually suspected.

“Not an option.” Corinne shook her head. “So? Come on, tell us!”

“ _What did you tell her?_ ” Jonny asked before he went any further, nodding at Genny.

“No fair, no speaking in French.” She cut in, waving a hand. “Tell us!”

“Yeah, Tazer. No speaking French. Tell them!” Patrick set a plate down in front of Jonny with a smile. “Tell them what?”

“Save me.” Jonny hissed, grabbing Patrick’s hand and purposefully not looking at the girls.

“Go easy on him. He’s not used to being bombarded by girls.” Patrick turned to tell the girls.

“And you are?” Izzy asked, clearly aiming for teasing.

“I have three younger sisters. You become immune to the pestering.” Patrick shrugged. “What do they want you to tell them?”

Jonny gave Patrick a meaningful look and Patrick nodded knowingly before going back to eating.

“How did your last leg go?” Patrick changed the topic and Jonny watched as the girls frowned for a moment before accepting it.

They all compared stories from the last few legs where they hadn’t seen each other, laughing at the ridiculousness of the pie throwing and discussing the tediousness of the constant driving. Allen joined them during the conversation and both the skater dudes and the twins pulled chairs up to their small table to regale them with their own comedic tales as well.

By the time they got back to the room, Jonny was feeling exhausted from everything that had been happening over the past few days. He made a beeline straight for the bed, shedding clothes as he went while Patrick set their alarm and got himself ready for bed.

Jonny watched Patrick move around the room, setting things up for the next morning before grabbing the remote from the desk. As soon as Patrick crawled into the bed, Jonny opened his arms up for Patrick to scoot over and curl up in between.

“Only a few more legs.” Patrick said into the quiet of the room after settling on a channel for background noise.

“Then I can finally get you home.” Jonny smiled, pressing a kiss into Patrick’s curls before shutting his eyes to try and get some sleep before they had to be up again in the morning.

 


	11. Leg 10: Germany -> Netherlands

“Jonny, wake up.”

Jonny shifted away from the light shoves to his shoulder coming from Patrick, but he could smell coffee, so he reluctantly opened one eye.

“I let you sleep as late as I could, but now you have to get up.” Patrick told him sternly and Jonny almost retorted back that he was supposed to be the bossy one before deciding to keep it to himself and holding a hand out for the coffee instead. “Nope, not until you’re out of bed.”

Jonny sighed exasperatedly and threw back the covers, stomping his way over to where the coffee was waiting on the desk. He tested the temperature before taking a few sips. Wordlessly, he walked over to pull Patrick in for a kiss, but Patrick ducked away and pushed him towards the bathroom.

“Brush your teeth first, then if we have time after you get ready, we can do that.” Patrick shoved him towards the bathroom with a smack on his bare ass in encouragement.

After brushing his teeth and taking a quick shower, Jonny felt far more human, so when he opened the bathroom door, he strode straight over to Patrick. He tossed the last of his toiletries from the bathroom on the bed next to their bags before pulling Patrick firmly against him. The fabric of Patrick’s clothes felt rough against his bare skin and he held back a shiver from the sensation.

Jonny moved in and kissed Patrick hard, tugging him back towards the bed. Patrick fought back teasingly for a moment before giving in and following just as the alarm blared again.

“Fuck.” Patrick pulled away. “That means we have five minutes and you’re not even dressed yet.”

“This race is such a cockblock.” Jonny huffed out before going over to start getting dressed.

“Well, technically, since we got together on the race, it isn’t a cockblock.” Patrick pointed out with a grin, but Jonny just glared at him. “Come on, the faster we get through the race, the faster you can take me home and we can spend the rest of the offseason naked.”

“Then let’s get this shit done as fast as fucking possible.” Jonny sped through getting dressed and throwing things in his bag before grabbing Patrick’s wrist and tugging him out the door.

“I need my bag.” Patrick slipped away to get his bag before coming back and shutting the door behind them. “Oh, shit, you’ve got that look.”

“What look?” Jonny asked, barely holding back from both stomping and running down the hall, his emotions all over the place.

“The scary determined look. C’mon, let’s go win this so you can relax.” Patrick shook his head with a laugh and pushed the button for the elevator.

They made their way back to the pit stop from the night before, riding in the van with Teddy and Max again since their departure times were so close. Once they got to the pit stop, they were hustled over to the mat and handed their clue.

“Ready?” The assistant asked and nodded at the camera crew.

“Okay.” Patrick said, tearing open the clue. “Detour. Wow, that was quick. Break It or Slap It. Break bottles to find a clue or learn a dance?” Patrick turned to Jonny and answered his own question. “Break It. Okay, we have to go to the Bavaria Film Studios and break bottles on each other’s heads until we find a clue that says ‘prost,’ but we can only do one bottle per cuckoo from the clock.”

They hurried down to the street to catch a cab and luckily found a line of them waiting nearby.

“Hi, Bavaria Film Studios?” Jonny asked the driver, who nodded and took off once they were settled in with the camera crew. “Alright, let’s try and make sure we stay ahead of Max and Teddy. If we can move up on the models, that’s good, too.”

“Tazer, settle.” Patrick nudged him. “We’ve got this.”

The rest of the drive was relatively quiet and they pulled up in front of the Studios not much later.

“Will you wait here?” Patrick asked the driver, who nodded with a weird glance at the cameras. “We shouldn’t be too long.”

Inside, they followed the signs and entered a room that had a long table filled with bottles, a backdrop of the Alps, and a large cuckoo clock.

“Alright, once per cuckoo.” Jonny reminded Patrick as they donned the hats that were given to them. Just after he said it, the clock went off and they each grabbed a bottle.

“How hard do I hit this?” Patrick asked, looking between the bottle and Jonny’s head. “I mean, I know they’re stunt bottles, but-”

“Just do it.” Jonny urged impatiently, and Patrick swung the bottle, breaking it over Jonny’s head. Patrick stopped to check the label, but it was blank, so Jonny grabbed a bottle and returned the favor, once again coming up empty.

They got in four attempts before Max and Teddy came running in to join them. A handful of attempts later, they still hadn’t found it.

“We have to hurry.” Jonny insisted and he could hear the whine in his own voice.

“Jonny, I can’t break them any faster than we’re allowed to.” Patrick pointed out, raising his voice at the end over another cuckoo from the clock. He broke another blank one just as the skater dudes cheered.

“Good luck, guys!” Teddy waved at them as they grabbed their clue and headed out.

Jonny could feel his blood pressure rising and he brought the bottle down on Patrick’s head with a little more force than necessary.

“Uh, ow?” Patrick rubbed at his head lightly. “No concussions, please.”

“Sorry.” Jonny winced, reaching up to rub at Patrick’s face for a moment before remembering the cameras and pulling away. “You okay?”

“It wasn’t that bad. Just, you know, chill a little.”

The clock went off once more and they came up empty handed again.

“We should’ve saved the fucking express pass.” Jonny continued to bitch a few rounds later.

“How was I supposed to know we’d get all sorts of tripped up on something this simple?” Patrick snarked back, breaking another bottle with more frustration as their tempers started to flare up.

“We’re going to end up fucking eliminated over this stupid task.” Jonny returned the favor, not even bothering to check the label of either bottle as he geared up for a fight.

“I thought you wanted to go home anyways!” Patrick growled back. “It’s not my fault here, okay?”

“That’s not why I want to get home and you fucking know it.” Jonny glanced over at the cameras, suddenly aware that they were there and not wanting to give too much away.

“Well, we fucking got it anyways.” Patrick reached down and angrily snatched up the label.

“Oh.” Jonny paused and looked down at it. “Okay, well, let’s fucking go.”

They exchanged their label for a clue that told them to get to the airport to sign up for one of two charter flights. After grudgingly thanking the woman that handed them the clue, they headed back out to luckily find their cab still waiting.

“Airport, please.” Jonny asked, forcing himself to sound at least somewhat pleasant.

At the airport, Jonny went directly to the charter flight counter, leaving Patrick to follow in his wake. He looked down at the sheet and swore loudly.

“We’re fourth, so we’re on the second flight.” He told Patrick, writing their names and slamming the pen back down.

“Oh, how the mighty have fallen.” The male model teased as they entered the waiting room.

“It’s only a half-hour.” Jonny shot back angrily. “We’ll see who gets to the finish line first.”

Patrick sat down next to Jonny and promptly turned to talk to the other teams, ignoring Jonny’s hissy fit. Jonny knew he was being bratty and petulant, but he couldn’t help it. He wanted to win.

The anger in Jonny’s mind slowly started to dissipate and he was almost feeling ready to apologize and go back to being vaguely normal with Patrick when the first three teams were told that they could begin boarding. That set his anger off all over again, but more at himself than at Patrick.

“Bathroom before we get on the plane?” Patrick asked with a pointed look at Jonny.

“Yeah, that sounds good.” Jonny agreed, realizing what Patrick was doing and getting to his feet.

“Probably a good plan.” The camera operator stood up as well to join them and suddenly almost everyone waiting for the plane was headed towards the bathroom en masse.

Jonny caught Patrick’s eye and Patrick shrugged with a small quirk of his lips. He wanted to scream in frustration, but followed Patrick’s lead instead, keeping himself as calm as possible.

The charter flight was relatively quick, less than two hours in the air before they were touching down in Amsterdam.

When they disembarked, Patrick pointed out the clue box that was just a few steps away and they went to get their clue.

“Roadblock.” Patrick opened the clue. “Which of you is the acrobat?”

“Your turn, baby.” Jonny reminded him.

“Yeah, yeah.” Patrick agreed, opening the instructions. “Okay, we have to get to Ransdorp and I need to do a ditch vault. Oh, I remember this one.”

Patrick led the way out of the airport and to the cab stand, instructing the driver where to go and settling into the back seat, pressing up hard against Jonny’s side.

The drive took about forty minutes, winding their way through the beautiful city. Patrick was watching as the scenery moved past outside the window, but Jonny ended up just staring at Patrick. He knew Patrick wasn’t upset with him, but it was driving him insane to not be able to talk to Patrick about everything.

At the field where the ditch vault was located, they got out and asked the driver to wait for them. Patrick hurried over towards the ditch and Jonny went to stand next to Seth, the male model.

“Did everyone else finish?” Jonny asked, nodding towards the ditch.

“Yeah, they both finished not too long ago. It takes a couple of tries to get the hang of it and it requires a lot of strength. You’ll probably be here at least a half hour.” He answered without looking away from his girlfriend.

Jonny watched as Patrick took a look down at the ditch for a few moments before grabbing the pole. He got a bit of a running start and pushed off hard from the ground, holding on to the pole and swinging himself easily onto the other bank, mud splashing onto his pants as he landed solidly on his feet.

As Jonny cheered excitedly, he took the clue and vaulted back to the other side of the bank. He jogged towards Jonny, wiping the mud from the pole off onto his pants and holding out the clue.

“Well, good luck.” Jonny told Seth, who still wasn’t looking at him but was obviously angry.

“Make your way to the house of Rembrandt’s mistress behind the church in Ransdorp. Warning, the last team to check in will be eliminated. Okay, let’s go.” Patrick rushed them back towards the cab.

“Hi, do you know the house of Rembrandt’s mistress?” Jonny asked the driver. “It’s behind the church in Ransdorp.”

“Yes.” The driver nodded and took off down the street, winding through the roads until they reached a large church. “It’s back there.”

“Thank you.” Jonny paid the driver and they hurried behind the church to where Phil and a woman were standing at the pit stop mat.

“Welcome to the Netherlands.” The woman told them as they stepped onto the mat.

“Patrick and Jonathan, you are team number…” Phil paused as usual to drag the suspense out for the cameras. “Three.”

“We figured.” Patrick smiled up at Phil and held a hand out to exchange handshakes. When they were finished and the next team was starting to arrive, they were herded off to a car that brought them to the hotel, where they were forced to do interviews with Patrick still dirty from the task.

“Dinner first or shower first?” Jonny asked when they were released from the camera crew and given their room key.

“Definitely shower first.” Patrick looked down at his dirty clothes pointedly. “Come here, Tazer.” He held his arms open and Jonny fled in the other direction, running towards their room to avoid Patrick’s muddy embrace.

Jonny accidentally ran past the door and had to backtrack, trying to get in before Patrick caught up to his head start. He’d just gotten the key in the door when Patrick collided with him, sending them both to the floor in a heap of mud and giggles.

Across the hall, the door opened and Allen stuck his head out with a confused look.

“Oh, it’s just you two.” He smiled at them with a nod before moving to close the door again, but Jonny could hear him chuckling and saying something to Genny inside the room.

“Come on, Jonny. Let’s get in there so I can get some of this mud off.” Patrick levered himself off of Jonny and held a hand out to pull Jonny to his feet, too.

Jonny finished opening the door and stepped inside, holding it open for Patrick behind him.

“I get the first shower, since you attacked me with mud.” Jonny pointed out, heading straight for the bathroom and stripping off the dirty articles of clothing.

“Absolutely not.” Patrick argued back, following him and pulling off his own shirt.

Jonny pretended to ignore his protests and started the shower, testing the temperature before stepping in. He moved under the spray to get wet, but a pair of arms wrapped around him as he did so.

“Joint showers are my favorite.” Patrick hummed happily into Jonny’s shoulder as the water began to rinse away the mud from both of them. “Too bad we can’t take them in the locker room.”

“Is that, uh, something you want?” Jonny asked quietly, hoping Patrick knew what he was really asking. Luckily, they were on the same wavelength.

“I told you, it’s your call.”

Jonny could feel Patrick shrug against his back and he frowned to himself for a moment.

“Well, I want to know what you want.”

“Okay, well, of course I don’t actually think joint showers in the locker room are a good plan. Sharpy would never relent on teasing us for being married if we started doing that.”

“Kaner.” Jonny rolled his eyes, pretending not to notice the jolt of happiness at the word _married_. He reached over to grab the soap, but Patrick took it from him and started to slide it over Jonny’s shoulders. “That’s not what I-”

“I know that’s not what you meant, dumbass.” Patrick cut him off. “I’m fine with telling the team or not telling the team, whichever you’d prefer. I mean, we’ll have to tell them eventually, of course, but it can wait until we’re ready.”

Jonny’s skin warmed at the implication that the relationship would go on for too long to be kept secret forever. He started to turn around to give Patrick a kiss, but Patrick held him in place, pressing his forehead to Jonny’s shoulder and sliding the soap to Jonny’s front. Instead of fighting it, Jonny sank back into Patrick’s hold and let Patrick run the soap over his chest, slipping lower and lower until his fingertips were grazing the base of Jonny’s cock.

After teasing for a few seconds, Patrick’s hand skirted around to continue down Jonny’s legs. Patrick crouched down to reach better and Jonny had to brace a hand against the wall of the shower as Patrick teased up higher and higher, his fingers slipping closer and closer to where Jonny wanted them. Finally, finally, he felt the blunt press of Patrick’s fingertips against his hole and the moan that fell from his lips was involuntary.

Patrick teased him for a few moments, sliding his other hand to wrap around Jonny’s cock and give it a few soapy tugs. Jonny’s fingers grabbed at nothing as he tried to steady himself, but far too quickly, Patrick was pulling away to stand up. He grabbed Jonny’s hips and turned him around.

“Rinse off.” He commanded and Jonny obeyed, stepping back under the spray until all of the soap suds were gone and the water ran clear. “Now come here.” Patrick’s voice was husky and his own cock was flushed and hard.

As soon as he took a step towards Patrick, he was pushed up against the wall with Patrick dropping to his knees and taking him in greedily.

“Fuck, Kaner.” Jonny groaned, his head dropping forward to stare down at the sight of Patrick working him over.

He felt far too close already and Patrick certainly wasn’t helping, or was helping too much depending on how he looked at it. He moved his hands to Patrick’s curls with the intention of pulling him back a little bit, slowing him down so Jonny lasted a little longer, but Patrick just moaned around him instead, sliding Jonny’s cock further down his throat so that Jonny was tugging hard on his hair.

“You’ve gotta-” Jonny choked out, trying to hold his hips back from thrusting and chasing the warm heat of Patrick’s mouth as much as possible.

“What, Jonny?” Kaner pulled back to ask, his voice rough already.

“You’ve gotta slow down or this is going to be over really fucking fast.”

“There’s something else I want to do first.” Patrick leaned away a little so he could grab Jonny’s hips and turn him around.

“Oh, fuck, Pat.” Jonny swore when he realized what Patrick was doing.

“This okay?” Patrick asked before punctuating his question with a nip to the curve of Jonny’s ass.

“Don’t ask stupid fucking questions.” Jonny wrapped his fingers around the towel bar in front of him to hold himself steady and spread his legs a little bit wider.

Patrick started with a few light licks, teasing playfully and it drove Jonny even more insane. He shoved his ass back further and Patrick got the hint.

“No teasing now?” Patrick chuckled, his laughter vibrating against the sensitive skin. He continued to speak, pausing every couple of words to add a lick, getting increasingly harder as he went. “When we get home, I’m going to shove you down on our bed and I’m going to take my time with this. Okay?”

Jonny vaguely registered the question through the increasing fog of his impending orgasm, but he couldn’t pull himself together to respond. He just kept getting caught on Patrick saying _our bed_. Patrick didn’t seem to mind, because he just pushed harder, seemingly determined to make this be over for Jonny much quicker than Jonny wanted.

Realizing the futility of trying to slow Patrick down when he was as close as he was already, Jonny stopped trying to think and lost himself in the swirling pressure of Patrick’s tongue, pressing shamelessly back towards him.

Needing one last push, Jonny wrapped a hand around himself. A few quick tugs later, he was coming all over the shower wall with a low groan.

“Just, just-” Patrick mumbled incoherently against Jonny’s ass and Jonny looked down to see Patrick’s hand stroking rapidly over his own cock. Patrick whined and bit down into the flesh of Jonny’s ass before adding to the mess on the wall.

“Get up here.” Jonny commanded, trying to turn around but shaking on still unsteady feet.

“Give me a minute.” Patrick rocked back onto his feet, closing his eyes.

Jonny gave him a few moments before wrapping a hand around his good wrist and tugging.

“Let’s rinse off and get some dinner.”

“Alright, alright.” Patrick grumbled, but he was still smiling.

They finished cleaning up, Patrick making sure to go over his entire body with soap a few extra times to make sure all the dirt was gone, and then got dressed before heading down to the dining room.

“Oh, shit.” Patrick said as they entered the dining room.

“What?” Jonny looked up at him and then around the room, the only missing team taking a moment to register. “Aw, the girlies. Maybe they’re just in their room already or something?”

They grabbed food and sat down at the table where all four teams were already eating.

“Girlies?” Patrick asked as he started to cut his chicken.

“They weren’t to the roadblock yet when we finished.” Vivian, the girl from the model team, told them. “And we ended up being fifth.”

“The clue did say ‘will be eliminated,’ too” Max pointed out. “Not ‘might be eliminated.’”

“Well, we’re getting down to the end.” Patrick said excitedly. “I’d say probably three more legs until the finish line.”

“Where do you think we’re headed next? Do you think we’ll hit South America before heading back to the states?” One of the twins speculated.

They spend the rest of dinner throwing out ideas for where they might be off to in the morning. The teams started to trickle off to their rooms until it was just Patrick, Jonny, and the twins left.

“So, boys, are you thinking of heading to bed or are you interested in staying up a little later?” The one next to Jonny asked, putting her hand on top of where Jonny’s arms were crossed on the table. The intention behind her question was obvious, but Jonny wasn’t sure just how to turn her down when the doors to the room opened.

Thankfully, they were saved from having to respond by the girlies trudging in, clearly upset.

“You two better win this, okay?” Corinne complained as she threw herself into a chair across from them. Izzy plopped down next to her, still covered in mud.

“Today has been the worst day.” She proclaimed and then started to explain how their cab driver had gotten lost on the way to the roadblock.

The twins slipped out part way through and Jonny spared a moment to be grateful that he didn’t have to deal with that whole awkward situation, hoping they’d go after the skater dudes next instead of trying with them again.

After commiserating with the girlies about their elimination for a while, they parted ways with a promise to see each other at the finale.

“Back to our room? We should get some sleep.” Jonny suggested, grabbing some food for their bags before leading Patrick out of the room.

“It’s too bad they got eliminated.” Patrick said as they were getting into bed after packing their bags for the next morning. “I really liked them.”

“Me too, but if we want to win, we have to eliminate everyone.” Jonny pointed out. He pulled at Patrick until Patrick shuffled over closer to him for cuddles.

 


	12. Leg 11: Netherlands

Jonny woke the next morning when the alarm went off and he debated throwing something at it, but Patrick turned it off before he gathered up the energy to grab anything.

“Only two more sleeps until we can go home, I think.” Patrick pointed out as he tried to coax Jonny out of bed.

“Two too many.” Jonny muttered, relenting and dragging himself out from under the warm blankets. He paused for a moment to smile down at the rumpled bed, the dents on the pillows making it obvious that they’d been curled up together, before registering something. “Shit, Kaner.”

“Hmm?” Patrick leaned out from the bathroom with his toothbrush in his mouth.

“We’ve only been sleeping in one bed. They’re totally going to notice when only one bed is messed up!”

Patrick held up a finger and went back into the bathroom to finish brushing his teeth. Jonny walked over and joined him, grabbing his own toothbrush and brushing angrily until Patrick was finished.

“There are so many people involved with this whole thing that I highly doubt hotel management is going to notice that our room only has one used bed. There are plenty of couples here who I’m sure are only using one bed and I don’t think the camera crews are coming in here after us to double check the rooms.” Patrick told him, an unimpressed look on his face. That sounded pretty logical, actually, Jonny had to admit to himself. “Plus, it’s a bit too late to freak out about it. We’re in the Netherlands now, but we were in fucking Russia. If anywhere was going to catch on, that’d probably be where.”

Patrick left the room and Jonny could hear him packing away his toiletries kit. He finished brushing his own teeth before doing the same. When everything was ready to go, Jonny pulled Patrick in close, twisting his fingers in the fabric of Patrick’s Blackhawks shirt. They kissed for a few long minutes before Jonny pulled away with a nod towards the door.

“We need to go.”

“Not much longer.” Patrick reminded him again, stealing another kiss and then heading out the door.

On the car ride back to the Pit Stop, Jonny couldn’t help himself from leaning over and pressing against Patrick happily. There were no cameras or crew and the driver seemed content to hum along to the radio and pay no attention to them.

Patrick nudged him and tangled their fingers together, squeezing a few times excitedly before stroking his thumb across Jonny’s knuckles.

They pulled up to where the Pit Stop mat was and got out, heading over to receive their clue and meet their latest camera crew.

“Oh, there’s a Fast Forward.” Patrick commented as he pulled the sheets out, sliding it behind the clue. Okay, make your way to the Smoker Statue in the Monnickendam Harbor. Let’s get a cab.”

They headed straight towards the street and Jonny waved down a cab quickly.

“Hi, can you take us to the Smoker Statue in the Monnickendam Harbor?”

“Yes, no problem.” The man answered and they all piled into the car. They drove for a little while before pulling up along the water at the harbor.

“Can you wait here?” Jonny asked the driver, who agreed. Patrick was a few paces ahead of him, so he caught back up and they stopped at the clue box. “Roadblock.” Jonny opened the clue and read the hint. “Which one of you has a firm grip and likes seafood?”

Patrick snorted loudly and Jonny gave him a look before turning back to the cameras.

“My turn to do the Roadblock.” He flipped to the instructions, which told him he had to climb on board a boat and catch eels with his hands. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

“Good luck, Tazer.” Patrick was clearly barely holding back his laughter at Jonny.

Jonny made his way over to the boat with the race flag on it and stepped on board. A man gestured at where there was a recessed area in the floor that was filled with eels.

“Pick them up from there, put them in that crate, and you get your clue after twenty-five. I’ll keep count for you.” The man instructed and Jonny nodded.

He braced his feet solidly on the inside of the recessed area and reached down to grab one of the wriggling eels. It slipped right out of his hands, then did a second time after he tried to grab it again. He growled in frustration and grabbed for a third one.

“C’mon, Tazer. Gotta keep a firm grip.”

Jonny didn’t have to look up to know Patrick was making a lewd gesture and he rolled his eyes, hating himself a little bit for finding Patrick endearing.

“Fuck off, Kaner.” Jonny determinedly grabbed at one of the eels, but tightened his hands more and held them more spread out than he had been. He managed to get the eel into the crate and Patrick started to cheer obnoxiously.

He could hear Patrick babbling to the camera about how the best way to motivate Jonny to be better was to make him feel like shit for not being able to do something. He let Patrick eat up the camera attention and refocused on the eels. Once he got the hang of grabbing them, he moved through the task quickly while continuing to ignore Patrick’s chirping.

When he was finished, the man gave him their next clue and he hopped back onto dry land next to Patrick.

“Ugh, my hands are disgusting.” Jonny whined, leaning over to wipe them off on Patrick’s pants. Patrick leaped back before he could touch him and they ended up playing a game of chase for a minute.

“Okay, fine. Do it and get it over with so we can move on.” Patrick groaned and stopped trying to get away. Jonny laughed, but wiped his hands off on his own pants before tearing open the clue.

“Make your way to the Windmill De Onderneming in Vierhuizen.”

“Let’s go back to our cab.” Patrick walked over to where the driver was waiting for them and told him the next location to drive to.

At the next stop, they paid the driver and hurried up to the clue box.

“Okay, detour. Farmer’s Game or Farmer’s Dance. Swim across a creek and play golf or learn a dance.” Jonny read the clue and looked over at Patrick. “Golf?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Patrick agreed.

“Okay, we need to dress in traditional Dutch costumes and bike to our Detour choice. One of us has to wear the male costume and one of us has to wear the female costume. Don’t even fucking think about it. I did the babushka roadblock.” Jonny said warningly, cutting Patrick off from making a joke. “Let’s go.”

They entered the barn next to them that had the race flag on it and found a clothing rack. They located their names and took the two costumes, Patrick taking the skirt with an overdramatic sigh. They each had a bag with their names on it as well and they stepped into one of the dressing rooms together to change.

In the bags, there were white long underwear, so they each pulled theirs on before starting to don their costumes. When they were both fully dressed in their Dutch garb, Jonny moved to pull Patrick in for a quick kiss away from the cameras, but Patrick just crossed his arms and turned away.

“You’re wearing it.” Jonny didn’t give in to his pout, kissing him on the cheek instead before going to open the door.

“Wait.” Patrick sighed reluctantly, but gave Jonny a quick kiss and a swat on the ass. “I suppose it’s only fair since you had to do the babushka thing.”

They exited the dressing room and slid on their assigned wooden shoes before leading the camera crew out to where the bikes were.

“How am I going to bike in a skirt?” Patrick whined and Jonny knew he was playing it up for the camera as he clumsily mounted the bike and began to pedal away.

They biked along the marked path until they came to a fork in the road and a spot to park their bikes. They parked their bikes and followed the clue’s instructions to strip down to their long underwear and swim across the creek.

The water in the creek was freezing cold, but it wasn’t very wide and they swam across it as quick as possible. On the other side, they grabbed a golf bag and brought it to the first hole, the tee marked by two wooden shoes.

“We have to switch off on each stroke and we need three holes, each with eight strokes or less.” Patrick read off from the clue. “Eight strokes or less, huh?” He grinned and looked towards the camera. Jonny chuckled, annoyed at himself but unable to help it. Patrick turned back to him and they both tried to keep a straight face, only lasting for a moment before laughing again.

“We’ve clearly been doing this too long if I’m finding you funny. You’ve Stockholm Syndromed me!” Jonny sighed exaggeratedly before grabbing a club from the golf bag and stepping up to get started.

They took turns using clubs shaped like wooden shoes to knock the oversized balls into buckets at the end of each hole. The different balls and clubs took a bit to get used to, but they easily got into the swing of things and wrapped up the first hole in seven shots. The second hole only took five shots and after using seven again on the last hole, they were handed their clue by one of the women who were watching their progress.

“Thank you.” Patrick told her as he opened the clue. “Make your way by bike to the pit stop at Zoutkamp Harbor.”

“Back to the bikes, then!” Jonny was excited to get the clue for the pit stop, knowing it meant they were one leg closer to being done.

The camera crew followed alongside them in a golf cart, filming their progress towards the pit stop as they followed another series of race flags.

“What place do you think we’re in?” Jonny asked after they’d been biking for a little while.

“Well, we haven’t seen anyone else in a while. Maybe third?” Patrick guessed with a shrug.

When they finally pulled up to the pit stop, they ditched their bikes and ran to the mat to greet Phil.

“Jonathan and Patrick, you are team number…” Phil paused obligatorily. “Two.”

“We’ll take it.” Patrick grinned at him. “Only a few more legs left, so we’re glad we’ve made it this far.”

They talked for a few more minutes with Phil before being driven to their hotel for the night.

“I’m almost sorry I laughed at you for doing interviews in the dress before.” Patrick admitted as they sat down to do their next interviews.

“It just means I can mock you mercilessly now.” Jonny smirked and turned to the camera to answer their questions.

After they were finished with interviews, Patrick headed straight for their room, but Jonny stopped him.

“Nope, let’s get food and bring it back to the room first.”

“I want to change.” Patrick’s voice came close to being a whine, but Jonny just pulled him in close.

“Once we get to the room, we’re not leaving for the rest of the night.” He told Patrick, an edge of desperation in his voice.

“Fine. Let’s hurry.” Patrick rushed them in the direction of the food.

They loaded their plates quickly with food for the next eleven hours and some for their bags before heading to their room, arms laden with everything they were bringing back.

As soon as they’d unloaded everything onto the desk in the room, Jonny started to back Patrick up towards the bed. He shoved lightly at Patrick’s shoulder and Patrick fell back onto the bed, grinning up at Jonny and moving to unbutton his shirt.

“C’mon, Jonny. Get this skirt off of me.” Patrick wiggled his hips teasingly and Jonny tore the skirt down, tossing it aside and leaving him in just the white long underwear that were so tight that they left nothing to the imagination.

Patrick finished removing his shirt as Jonny peeled the long underwear off, nipping at the inches of skin that were being revealed. Jonny moved back up Patrick’s thighs as he fumbled with his own clothing, sucking and biting until he reached Patrick’s cock.

“Fuck, I wish we had lube and condoms so I could fuck you.” Jonny lamented, pressing a few kisses to the crease of Patrick’s thigh. “That’s the first thing I’m doing when we get home from this ridiculous trip.” He moved and pressed a light kiss to the side of Patrick’s cock, trailing kisses up towards the head. “What do you want, baby?”

“Side zipper in the front pocket of my bag.” Patrick gestured to where his bag was sitting against the wall.

“What?” Jonny asked, confused.

“Hurry up.” Patrick pushed at his head half-heartedly, his hips shifting restlessly on the bed.

Jonny leaned back to grab Patrick’s bag and pulled it over to him. He unzipped to check where Patrick had instructed and felt around in the pocket until his hand touched-

“Are you fucking serious?” Jonny pulled out the bottle of lube and several foil packages. “Where did you get these?”

“Didn’t leave home without them.” Patrick laughed breathlessly and Jonny frowned for a few moments at the thought that Patrick was hoping to get lucky with someone on the trip, until it registered that Patrick had been hoping it would be _him_. “Just in case you pulled your head out of your ass, you know.”

“You asshole.” Jonny pushed him back on the bed, scooting Patrick towards the headboard a little bit and settling between his legs. “Why didn’t you tell me you had them?”

“I tried! You always jump me before I get the chance.” Patrick’s breath hitched as Jonny circled a wet finger around his hole. “Fuck, Jonny, please.”

“I should make you wait. You’re the worst, oh my god.” Jonny growled, but slowly slid his middle finger into Patrick. “You couldn’t have said anything at any point? Was it too hard to tell me ‘Hey, Tazer, I’ve got some supplies in my bag for the next round’?” He worked his finger in and out while continuing to berate Patrick for not telling him, frustrated but so turned on that he needed to do something to keep himself under control.

“Another, please.” Patrick pushed down against Jonny’s finger, the only interruption in Jonny’s ranting. Jonny pressed another finger in alongside the first and Patrick let out a low groan.

Jonny stopped talking and focused instead on the slick glide of his fingers. He crooked them slightly, searching for a few moments until Patrick bucked under him.

“Okay, okay, I’m good. Fuck me.” Patrick instructed, but Jonny ignored him, adding another finger instead. “Ugh, you’re the worst. Please, Jonny.”

“Not yet. I don’t want to hurt you.” Jonny admitted honestly, even though it was taking a lot of willpower to hold back from just taking everything he could from Patrick.

He spent a few more minutes slowly stretching Patrick and ignoring his very vocal oppositions to the wait. Finally, he slipped his fingers out and fumbled around for one of the condoms.

“Wait.” Patrick held out a hand to stop him, causing Jonny to growl in frustration. “No, calm down, I’m not saying wait very long. I’m just saying that maybe you don’t need that?” Patrick’s voice raised questioningly at the end of his sentence.

“Patrick.” Jonny aimed for scolding with his tone, but missed it by a mile, breathless and desperate coming out instead. “You’re saying that like a question. If you’re not sure-”

“No, that’s not why it’s a question. They, uh, they test us so much for stuff because of fighting and everything and my last test results came back clean and I haven’t been with anyone in a long time. I just didn’t know if, if you would want to do that or if…” Patrick trailed off for a moment and Jonny finished the question for him.

“If I could say the same thing?” Jonny prompted.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t really want to have the who-we’ve-slept-with-before talk right now,” Jonny started to say, causing Patrick to chuckle, “but yeah, it’s been a while for me, too, and I’m clean.”

“Have you ever done this before?” Patrick asked, looking a little less nervous.

“What part?” Jonny asked gently, needing clarification.

“Any of it?”

“I’ve done this but never, um, without-” Jonny looked pointedly down at the half-opened condom wrapper.

“Neither have I.” Patrick admitted, his voice quiet in the silent room. Jonny was curious what exactly he’d done in the past, but knew better than to push the matter any further for the moment. They could discuss everything later. “Okay, Tazer. You talked a big game. Time to put up or shut up.”

Jonny tossed the condom to the side before grabbing the lube and slicking himself up. He settled himself down and pressed slowly into Patrick, kissing him through the initial discomfort as he adjusted. Patrick was perfectly warm and tight around his bare cock and Jonny already felt like he was in heaven. He paused for a few moments until Patrick started to shift his hips under Jonny.

“You good?” Jonny asked, pulling back and thrusting in again slowly.

“Yeah, just take it slow to start.” Patrick nodded, letting out a shaky breath.

It was hard to keep from just taking everything he wanted, but Jonny kept a measured pace, easing them both into it for a little while. He looked down at Patrick and felt a jolt of happiness at the look of bliss on Patrick’s face already, so he leaned down to kiss him.

Jonny could feel himself starting to speed up, getting a little harder in his thrusts, and Patrick began to meet each snap of his hips with movements of his own. When Patrick began to bite his lip, it drew Jonny’s attention and he had an overwhelming urge to be the one biting it. He ran his thumb over where Patrick’s teeth were sinking into the plump skin before coming close and biting down himself, earning a moan from Patrick and then they were kissing again, harder and more desperate.

It wasn’t long before Jonny felt himself starting to get close, the overwhelming feeling of pleasure and rightness taking over his brain, but Patrick had other plans. As Jonny sunk into Patrick again, Patrick caught him behind the knee and flipped them over so he was on top.

Patrick had a smug grin on as he looked down at Jonny’s surprised expression.

“I really wanted to fucking ride you.” Patrick told him with a roll of his hips. “My turn to be in charge.”

There wasn’t any point in arguing, because Jonny realized how much he wanted Patrick to do just that. He grabbed Patrick’s hips, fitting his hands along them and squeezing tightly. He wanted to bruise Patrick, to mark him as his own, but the logical part of his brain fought through the lust-driven fog to remind him that Patrick might have to strip down again for the show before they were done, so he didn’t.

Instead, he focused on watching Patrick as he started to shift up and down, lifting himself almost entirely off of Jonny’s cock before slamming back down onto it. Jonny started to match him thrust for thrust, watching as Patrick wrapped a hand around himself and started to talk.

“Oh, fuck, Jonny. Should’ve been doing this for so long. Can’t believe you held out on me for all these years. Can’t wait to get home. Fuck, yeah, I’m going to let you fuck me every way imaginable when we get home and do the same to you.”

The sight of Patrick babbling away and stroking his own cock was impossibly hot and Jonny had to close his eyes for a few minutes, still listening to the sound of Patrick’s voice.

“You feel so good, Jonny. Fuck, so good.”

Jonny knocked Patrick’s hand away and started to stroke him, knowing he was getting close and not wanting to come before Patrick, since he was worried he’d never live it down.

Patrick’s talking devolved into a string of moans, curses, and Jonny’s name as Jonny tightened his grip, before he came hard, shooting hot and thick all over Jonny’s chest.

He didn’t think coming in Patrick without a condom would make a big difference, but after a few more sharp thrusts up into Patrick, he found out that it did. He wasn’t sure how much was the fact that it was Patrick and how much was the fact that there was nothing separating them, but it felt so good that he was already impatient for their next time before he’d even pulled out.

Patrick didn’t climb off right away, taking a few moments to come down before collapsing forward onto Jonny’s chest, causing Jonny to slip out. Patrick let out a small whimper of discontent, then fell into silence.

“So, how many other people have you been with?” Patrick’s voice broke through Jonny’s post-orgasmic haze a few minutes later.

“Are we doing this now, then?” Jonny asked, opening an eye to peer down at Patrick. “A couple of girls back in high school while I was figuring myself out, then once I figured out I was gay, two boyfriends and some one night stands. Nothing too serious, though.”

“So, you are?” Patrick asked, and Jonny made a noise of confusion. “Gay, I mean?”

“Yeah, Peeks.” Jonny answered dryly, making a show of looking down at where their still-naked bodies were intertwined.

“Hey, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to assume.”

“And you? I’ve seen you pick up girls. Was that just for show, or…?”

“No, I’m definitely more fluid. I like sex and I find people attractive. Gender just isn’t that big of a deal to me. I just mostly keep to women, since it’s, you know.”

“Easier?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Patrick shrugged and climbed off of Jonny, going into the bathroom.

Jonny could hear running water and let himself think about the strain their relationship would put on their lives if people found out. After a few minutes, Patrick came back out with a damp washcloth, tossing it at Jonny to clean himself up. Jonny swiped at his stomach and cock until they were both clean before tossing the washcloth in the direction of the bathroom.

“Patrick, we don’t have to let anyone know what’s going on if you don’t want that kind of pressure.”

“No! That’s not a problem, okay?” Patrick leaned in to give Jonny a quick kiss. “I’ve never had someone I cared enough about to make any big deal one way or the other. I do want to tell everyone about us eventually. It’s too important to me for us to keep it secret forever. I meant what I said, though. You can take the lead and I’m happy with whatever you want to do.”

“I want you, and I’ll do whatever it takes. We can come out together when we get home or we can convince some poor girls to be our covers for a few years or anything in between, whatever you need. But, if it’s up to me, I want to come out. I’d prefer to not hide anything, but I understand if you-”

“Jonny.” Patrick cut him off. “Whatever you want, Captain. Seriously.” Patrick chuckled at himself and Jonny gave him a look before speaking.

“I want to tell our families first, then we can tell the team.” Jonny said thoughtfully. “That much is obvious. I’m not sure how we should handle coming out to the media and the fans, though.”

“Well, lucky for you, we have time. You can plan and overthink until you’re ready to make the call. No matter what you choose, I’m fine with it. Now, let’s cuddle and go to sleep. Stop thinking for now. We need to be up in a few hours to go win this thing.”

“Let’s win this stupid race so we can get home and win the cup again.”

“Deal.” Patrick laughed and Jonny leaned in close, kissing him before pulling away again to try and get some sleep.

Several long minutes passed and Jonny thought Patrick was asleep. He was almost there himself when Patrick spoke up again.

“Not Oshie though, right?”

“ _Patrick_.”

“I’m just curious, okay?”

“Go to sleep.” Jonny laughed, waiting a few moments before giving in and answering. “No, not Oshie.”

“Okay, good. Love you!” Patrick snuggled down into Jonny’s chest with a contented sigh.

“Love you, too.”

 


	13. Leg 12: Netherlands -> United Kingdom

“Time to get up.”

Jonny opened his eyes to see Patrick looming over him with a grin.

“You know, you could at least wake me up with a blow job or something. Otherwise, what use are you?” Jonny teased as he got out of bed, pushing Patrick to the side and making a beeline for the bathroom.

“Such a charmer, aren’t you, darling?” Patrick’s voice was syrupy sweet as he teased Jonny back. “Maybe when we get back home.” He followed Jonny into the bathroom and perched on the counter to watch as Jonny brushed his teeth and undressed for a quick shower.

“How long have you been up? Are you ready to- oh.” Jonny turned around from the spray of the water to see Patrick climbing in behind him.

“I told you, joint showers are my favorite.” Patrick pressed him up against the wall of the shower to give him a dirty kiss before leaning back and grabbing for the soap. “Switch me spots?”

They showered easily, moving around each other with affectionate touches at every opportunity while still getting clean in a relatively quick manner. Once they were dried off and dressed, Jonny took the opportunity to devour the breakfast that Patrick had set out earlier while Patrick packed up the last of their stuff.

“Alright, let’s get going so we can get home.” Jonny shouldered his bag, then pecked Patrick on the lips before stepping over to open the door.

They made their way back to the pit stop, riding quietly in the van but pressing tightly against each other in the shroud of darkness around them.

“I’m so glad we only have to do this one more time.” Patrick said quietly after they met their new camera crew and were directed towards the mat. A production assistant gave them the green light to open the clue, so Patrick tore into it. “Make your way to the London Eye. Take a trip around to receive your next clue.”

“Let’s get a cab.” Jonny headed towards the nearby street, Patrick and the camera crew following close behind. He flagged down a cab and instructed him to take them to the airport.

At the airport, Jonny took the lead on ordering their tickets. The only flight was a direct one, but didn’t leave for a couple hours, meaning they would probably end up as a big group on the plane. Jonny bought the tickets and lead the way through security and to the waiting area at their gate.

“Hey, guys.” Vivian, the female model, waved at them when they arrived. “Do you know who got eliminated?”

“No, not yet. We didn’t end up seeing anyone, really.” Jonny answered, sitting down and grabbing for the cards in Patrick’s bag.

Allen and Genny came in not long after and joined their card game, followed by Max and Teddy.

“So, the twins got eliminated, then?” Patrick asked as he dealt the newcomers in.

“Yup.” Max nodded, picking up his hand. “So, final four. Headed to London. How’s everyone feeling?”

They all made polite small talk for what Jonny realized would probably be the last time. It was down to the end of the race, and once they were off the plane in London, there were no more friendships or alliances.

The flight to London was short and uneventful, spent working on notes in their notebook and going back over everything to try and think of things they should add, in case they missed anything.

Disembarking from the plane was a mad scramble, innocent bystanders left confused in their wake as everyone darted off the plane and into Heathrow.

Patrick was a few paces ahead of Jonny and headed straight for the first cab in the line in front of the airport. Jonny caught sight of the other teams, but focused on getting them where they needed to go instead.

They all loaded into the cab and headed off towards the London Eye. Forty-five minutes of impatience later, Jonny convinced the driver to wait for them and they headed to the Eye.

A long line stretched out of people waiting their turn, but a production assistant waved them over and ushered them right into one of the waiting cars.

“Okay, it just says to take a ride, so I don’t know if we’re supposed to be looking for something.” Patrick pulled the clue out of Jonny’s pack to read it again.

“Is anyone else here?” Jonny asked, trying to look for any of the other teams. “Oh, there! Allen and Genny and getting off right now.” He pointed to where the pair was being handed a clue envelope.

“I guess let’s look and see if we see anything, but otherwise, let’s just enjoy the ride.” Patrick shrugged and stepped towards the glass on the other side. “We should really take some time to go traveling during the next off-season. This has been a lot of fun, but maybe we could do it with a little less pressure.”

“And a little less doing-ridiculous-things?” Jonny chuckled and moved to stand next to Patrick, as close as they could manage with the camera crew watching them so closely.

“I don’t know. Maybe a little less, but we have to still do some ridiculous things.”

“Fine, fine. But we can’t just go off traveling for no reason.”

“I’m pretty sure we can, actually, but I’m sure we can think of a reason.” Patrick turned to grin at Jonny, and Jonny got a flash of possibilities for traveling with Patrick - visiting their families, maybe taking them along for a vacation, sight-seeing, finding a secluded beach to just relax. One reason to travel stuck out over the others, but he couldn’t voice it. Not with the cameras around, not so soon anyways, but it was still there as an idea. Instead, he suggested something else.

“We can do a celebratory vacation next summer when we win the cup.”

“I’m holding you to that.” Patrick said warningly, but there was a hint of something else in his eyes and Jonny couldn’t help the spark of hope that maybe Patrick was thinking the same thing.

When they arrived back down to the ground, they stepped out of the car and a man handed them their next clue.

“Okay, Detour.” Jonny read. “Brains or Brawn. Solve a series of Sherlock Holmes-style riddles or move some boats. The boats only weigh 160 pounds.”

“Let’s do that.” Patrick suggested and turned to the camera. “We’re going to do Brawn.”

They headed back to where their cab driver was waiting and instructed him to take them to Battersea Park. When they arrived, Jonny paid the driver and they scurried quickly towards where the race flags were.

“Okay, so we need to move five of these boats from the lake to the storage area.” Jonny instructed, reading the details of the clue. “We apparently have to use these trailers.”

“That sounds like it’s going to be more of a pain in the ass than necessary.” Patrick commented as he looked over the trailer. “We could just carry them ourselves.”

“Let’s just do this. Come on.” Jonny grabbed the front of the boat and hauled it up over the edge of the dock. They each took one end of the boat and lifted it into the trailer before coming around in front to take the handle.

“Too bad we can’t do more than one at a time.” Patrick complained as they took off at a jog, following the flags and pulling the boat trailer.

Once they dropped the first boat off, they ran back to get the next boat. The rest of the boats followed easily, not giving them any trouble as they moved them across the park. When the fifth boat had been dropped off, they were handed their next clue.

“Make your way to what locals call The Dome.” Patrick read the clue and they headed off towards the road. “The Dome?”

“Let’s ask.” Jonny stopped near a group of people. “Hi, do you know what The Dome is?”

“Sorry, we’re not from here.” One girl shook her head with a frown.

“The O2?” Another girl asked, looking up from her seat on a bench.

“Um, sure?” Patrick held the clue out to her. She scanned it and nodded.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they mean the Millenium Dome over at The O2. You need directions on how to get there?”

“We’ll just catch a cab. Thank you!” Jonny pulled Patrick quickly towards the road and held his hand out for a cab. It only took a couple of minutes before they were climbing into the backseat of the cab and heading off.

Traffic was bad and it took almost an hour to get to where they were going. Once they arrived, they paid and ran as fast as possible towards the race flags, leaving the camera crew in their dust.

“Hopefully since it took us so long, it took everyone else a long time, too.” Jonny groaned as they grabbed the next clue. “Roadblock. Who’s got the drive to win?”

“My turn, plus I’m the better driver.” Patrick grabbed the clue from Jonny.

“Bullshit.” Jonny argued reflexively.

“You drove into the L track!”

“I had a concussion!”

“It’s my turn, Jonathan.” Patrick grinned as he full-named Jonny. “One team member must drive a Double Decker bus through a marked course without hitting any cones. If you hit a cone, the bus driver will reset the bus back to the beginning of the course and you must start again. Once the bus is parked in the designated parking area, you will receive your next clue.”

“Oh, good. You already drive that ridiculous monstrosity of a vehicle. A bus can’t be that different.” Jonny rolled his eyes as Patrick rushed over to where the bus driver was waiting for him.

Patrick knocked into two cones early on, but on the third attempt, he easily navigated through the course, missing every cone and backing the bus in easily. When he got out of the bus, the driver handed him the clue and Jonny ran over to meet him with the camera crew.

“Find Phil somewhere on the grounds of The O2. The last team to find him will be eliminated.” Patrick read.

“It doesn’t say check in.” Jonny commented, noticing the strange wording.

“Yeah, weird. I’m sure there’s a reason. Let’s find him, quick.” Patrick looked around for a moment before he took off, running away from where they were at. “Do you think he’s inside?”

“If he was out here, I feel like we’d have spotted him or other racers when we were coming in, so that makes sense. Let’s try it.”

They entered the large dome structure and paused for a minute to look around before running down the corridor. When the corridor opened into a larger room, Patrick shouted and made Jonny jump.

“There! Phil!” Patrick ran towards the mat and Jonny followed as quickly as he could.

“Patrick and Jonathan, you are team number three.” Phil told them when they stopped on the mat.

“However?” Jonny prompted.

“However, there is no pit stop for the night. Here’s your next clue and you may continue racing.” Phil smiled stoically and handed over the envelope.

 


	14. Leg 13: United Kingdom -> Canada -> United States

“Take the tube to London Heathrow Airport. Once there, make you way from one “O” to another “O” - a stadium nicknamed The Big O. Search it until you find your next clue.” Patrick read and then started giggling. Jonny joined in for a moment before they headed towards the tube station.

“Okay, so once we get to the airport, we can look this up.” Patrick said once they finished figuring out how to get the the airport from where they were.

“It’s the Stade Olympique in Montreal.” Jonny interrupted.

“We have to go to fucking Canada?” Patrick started to bitch and Jonny knew it was basically second nature to him by now to complain about going to Canada, even if he didn’t really mind it. He’d gone on enough road trips for games to know how Patrick was.

“We need to keep a low profile, though.” Jonny warned thoughtfully. “We can get away with traveling through the rest of the world, but I don’t want to cause any issues for the production by bringing attention to ourselves somewhere like that, where they’ll know us.”

“You are so fucking cocky.” Patrick elbowed him as they stepped onto the train platform to wait.

“Hey, I helped bring home the gold for Canada twice in a row.” Jonny shrugged, teasing back. “How’s that silver?”

“Ouch, man.” Patrick placed a hand over his heart and looked at the camera. “He wounds me. Fine, fine. I get it. Crosby is better than me.”

They were quiet for a few moments as the Jubilee train pulled in and they boarded. In the jostle of people, Jonny took a moment to press in close to Patrick.

“You know I’d always take two cups with you over two golds with Crosby or anyone else.”

“I love you, too.” Patrick whispered back before stepping away and sitting down in one of the open seats.

Jonny sat down in the open seat next to him and stared blankly at the map as they pulled away from the station, fighting back a smile.

When the train pulled up to the Green Park stop, they got off and switched to the Piccadilly line, taking it all the way out to Heathrow. On the second train, they did a bit of talking to the camera about their feelings on not having a pit stop.

“Honestly, if we’re about to get on a trans-Atlantic flight, I’m fine with not waiting the extra twelve hours.” Jonny told the camera. “I’d rather just get going and get to the finish line.”

“Agreed.” Patrick nodded, giving Jonny a significant look. “I am curious to see who got eliminated, though. We haven’t seen any other teams. I’m guessing they all did the other challenge.”

At Heathrow, they headed straight to the ticket counter to get on the first flight possible. Jonny hoped they’d be able to get a little bit of an advantage since he knew where the clue was talking about without needing to research it.

They only had forty-five minutes until the flight, so they rushed through security and got to the gate just as boarding started. Allen, Genny, Vivian, and Seth were already there and getting in line.

“So, I guess it’s down to us six since that was an elimination leg.” Genny said as they walked up. “Good luck to everyone. May the odds and all that.”

“You, too.” Jonny smiled at the other contestants before turning to focus solely on Patrick.

“Last leg and then we can finally go home.” Patrick reminded him.

“Maybe it’ll end in Montreal and then we’d only have one more flight until we can be back in Chicago.”

“I doubt it. We’ll probably have to go somewhere in the States first. Got to end in America, you know.”

“Well, then maybe it’ll end in Chicago and we’d be able to just take a cab home.” As soon as the words were out of Jonny’s mouth, he realized he didn’t know where home would be. He couldn’t wait to get back into his own bed, but Patrick was probably feeling the same way and he didn’t like the thought of them not being in the same place all the time after such close proximity. He’d happily go to Patrick’s if that’s what he wanted, but he wasn’t sure.

“Tazer, c’mon.” Patrick tugged at his wrist as the line in front of them moved, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, sorry.”

Once they boarded the plane and settled into their seats, they talked a little bit for the camera crew to get some shots, reviewing strategy and talking themselves up. When the plane was ready to take off, the crew put the cameras away and let them know that they’d be off-camera during the flight unless something big happened.

Patrick flipped through the movies on the in-seat video screen before settling on one and splitting the ear buds between them. Jonny tuned out quickly, choosing instead to close his eyes and rest against Patrick’s shoulder to nap. Patrick covered them both with a blanket and tangled their fingers together underneath it, squeezing gently as Jonny drifted off to sleep.

When Jonny woke up again, Patrick was asleep, face pressed against the window and snoring quietly. He checked the screen and saw that they still had a few more hours to go, so he let Patrick keep sleeping. In Patrick’s lap, their notebook was open to a page in the back with a pen held loosely in Patrick’s hand.

Jonny smiled and took the notebook to close it, but the writing on the page caught his attention. Nothing on the page seemed to be in much of an order, but from what Jonny could tell, it was notes for after they won the race.

It started with a list of who to give money and trips to, including a few of the other pairs, a couple of foundations started by other hockey players, and You Can Play. Next to the charities, Patrick had written “match with our money” followed by far too many question marks. Under that, Patrick had doodled for a few lines, all various designs of the number 88, and Jonny couldn’t help rolling his eyes. There was a list below that, listing their families and teammates as well as a few other friends, extended family members, and members of management. On the other side of the page, Patrick had drawn boxes next to each item in another list that included things like “boxes,” “realtor?,” and “Brisson.”

After spending far too long staring down at the notebook, he flipped back to where they were keeping notes from the trip and started to write down notes about London. He was finishing up when the cameraman leaned over and told him they were turning the cameras back on.

“Kaner.” He nudged Patrick a few times.

“Hmmm?”

“Time to wake up, babe. They’re turning the cameras back on since we’re almost there.” Jonny told him softly, catching the strange look the cameraman was giving them as he turned the camera back on.

A few minutes later, the pilot informed the cabin that they were making their final descent into Montreal. They gathered up their things and got ready to move as soon as they landed.

When the plane was finally stopped, all three teams leapt up and rushed quickly towards the front of the plane, fighting for position and racing off as soon as they could. Genny and Allen managed to deplane first, but Jonny and Patrick followed closely behind them. When Genny and Allen veered off the wrong way, Patrick started to follow, but Jonny stopped him.

“No, this way.”

They got out of the airport as quick as possible and Jonny hailed a cab.

“Stade Olympique, s’il vous plaît.” He instructed once everyone had squished into the car.

“Where are we supposed to look when we get there?” Patrick asked, looking at the clue again.

“I’m guessing under the seats. That’s where it was the last time they came here.”

Just before they went down into the tunnel near the Bell Centre, Patrick nudged Jonny and pointed ahead of them in the direction of the arena. They shared a smile and the cameraman asked them what they were smiling about.

“We’re just missing hockey.” Jonny explained with a shrug.

When they pulled up to Stade Olympique, they hurried to pay the driver then asked him to wait for them before rushing into the stadium.

“Let’s run up the stairs and search down each row as we go.” Jonny suggested, and they set off for the closest set of stairs.

“Do the chairs have to be yellow?” Patrick complained as they started up the stairs.

“I’m pretty sure that’s why they liked hiding them here, Kaner.” Jonny replied with a snort, looking all around for any sign of the black stripes on the yellow clue envelope.

They made their way through a few sections before they heard voices. Seth and Vivian entered the stadium a few moments later and set to work searching the same areas Jonny and Patrick had just finished. Patrick winked at Jonny and gave a thumbs up before sprinting up the stairs.

Allen and Genny arrived about ten minutes later, but they started by going to the upper level after seeing everyone else on the lower level.

After a little more than a half-hour of looking, Patrick shouted triumphantly and grabbed a clue from the back of a chair. Jonny ran towards him excitedly as he tore the clue open.

“Detour. Slide It or Roll It. Curling or some logging thing.” Patrick read off. “Curling.”

“Agreed.” Jonny nodded and then turned to the camera crew. “We’re going to Slide It.”

Once they were in the cab again, Jonny instructed the driver to take them to Glenfinnan Rink before pulling the clue out again.

“Okay, we just need to each get one stone into the house. That should be easy.”

“You are such a weirdo.” Patrick chuckled, but pressed against Jonny’s side fondly. “Maybe we can find you another one of those curling hats to wear for this.” He turned to the camera to speak to the cameraman. “You should really use a copy of that picture in the broadcast for emphasis. It’s hilarious. I can e-mail you a copy.”

“Lu wore it, too!”

“That is definitely not a solid argument.”

“Shut up.”

They bickered back and forth until they pulled up to the arena and Jonny asked the driver to wait again. He agreed and they hurried inside the arena, grabbing helmets and brooms before stepping out onto the ice.

Jonny was up first to deliver, hopping up quickly to help sweep once he released. After taking a minute to gauge how the stone was travelling, he started instructing Patrick how much to sweep, but the stone ended up short. The second and third stones ended up too far, but the fourth stone stopped just as it entered the house.

Patrick got ready for his first delivery and they managed a perfect execution, landing the stone right on the button. When they were sure it had stopped moving, they both cheered and hugged excitedly before taking their next clue.

“That was fantastic. You thought I couldn’t do it.” Patrick teased, bumping his hip into Jonny’s as he opened the clue. “Make your way to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.”

Back in the cab, they instructed the driver to take them back to the airport. He gave them a confused look, but did as they asked. Patrick was antsy the whole drive and Jonny wanted to reach out to calm him down, but knew he probably shouldn’t.

“Peeks, settle.” He placed one hand on Patrick’s knee to stop it from bouncing.

“Sorry.” They smiled at each other and Jonny realized after a moment how obvious they must look to the cameras.

They pulled up to the airport and paid the driver before hurrying inside. Jonny led them to the first travel desk he saw without a line and smiled at the girl behind the counter.

“Hi, I need four tickets to New York City, as fast as possible, doesn’t matter which airport.”

“Sure thing, Mr. Toews.” The girl started typing on the computer and it took Jonny a second to realize that she’d called him by name.

“Uh.” He said dumbly, scrambling for how to handle the situation, but she seemed to be ignoring the camera crew behind them.

“Okay, and what class would you and Mr. Kane prefer to fly? I have four seats in first class on a flight that leaves in an hour and a half, or four seats in economy on the same flight.”

“Just economy is fine.” Jonny answered.

“Are you sure?” She raised an eyebrow at him in confusion.

“Yeah, we’re doing a whole Winter Classic thing. You know, the TV show they do of the teams getting ready.” Patrick jumped in to explain. The rules stated that they couldn’t pay for first class tickets unless they were the same price as economy seats. “That’s why we’ve got these guys with us. Anyways, since it switched from HBO to Epix, they only fly us economy now. We don’t mind, though. As long as we get from point A to point B, right?”

“Hmm.” She looked a little suspiciously at their backpacks and the camera crew for a moment before typing something on the computer. “Well, would you look at that, for the economy ticket price, I can bump you up to those first class seats since it’s so close to boarding already and we’d really prefer to have a full aircraft, but the first class seats are hard to sell last minute. And how will you be paying for those today?”

“Oh, here.” Jonny handed her the card to charge the tickets. “Thank you so much for this.”

“It’s the least I can do for your help bringing the gold back twice.” She told him before glancing at Patrick, who had huffed at Jonny’s smirk.

“I wish there was some way we could repay you.”

“Can you get me Carey Price’s phone number?” She asked with a wink and a grin.

“I don’t think he’d be cool with that, but if I could, I would.” Jonny answered, taking the cards and the tickets from her.

“Fair enough. How about an autograph for my cousin? She’s sadly been misguided into being a Hawks fan ever since she moved to Chicago a few years ago.”

“That we can do. Uh, I think. Hold on. Can we?” He asked the cameraman to double check.

“No trading things for goods or services. I’m not sure if this counts or not, but I would think it does since she bumped you guys up.” He answered honestly.

“Okay, fair enough. We can’t give you an autograph right now, but good karma, yeah?” He made a mental note of her name so he could send her something later in thanks.

“Yeah.” She smiled, but Jonny could see that she knew something was up. She’d be contacted by the crew that was following behind them to sign an NDA and a consent form, so she’d know soon enough, but he still felt bad. “Anyways, enjoy your flight and good luck next season. I hope we meet in the finals and then kick your ass.”

They told her goodbye and headed towards their gate. After stopping in the first class lounge for some snacks to tide them over until they were finished with the race, they settled in to the chairs at the gate to watch for the other teams. Seth and Vivian came in at the last moment, just as the plane was starting to board. Everyone nodded in acknowledgement, but no one exchange pleasantries.

On the plane, Patrick leaned over to talk to Jonny once the cameras were off.

“I think I know what the Roadblock is going to be.”

“Yeah?” Jonny asked, pulling out their notebook.

“I feel like I remember this from one of the races. They went to the United Nations and had to say hello and goodbye in the language of each country they’d visited. It might not be right, but let’s get what we can done so we can get through it faster.”

“That makes sense.” Jonny agreed, flipping open to a blank page and starting a list. “It’s my turn, right?”

“Yup, you have to do this one.”

The flight was only an hour and a half, so they worked quickly and asked passengers around them for help. By the time the flight landed, they had most of the answers with a plan to have Jonny just do those and then work through guessing on the rest, unless something sparked his memory when they got there.

They disembarked first and Jonny was grateful that they managed to get first class seats, since they were gone before Seth and Vivian were allowed to leave. It was easy to grab a cab outside of the airport and direct them to the United Nations Building.

Traffic caught them up a little bit, but they got there in a reasonable time. As soon as they entered through the gates, Jonny saw the flags with the words on them and celebrated internally that they’d made the right call.

“Okay, who has a way with words?” Patrick read the clue. “Jonny, you’re up. Good luck.”

Jonny squeezed his hand before hurrying into the plaza. He clipped the flags saying “bonjour” and “au revoir” to the Canadian flag pole and hoisted them first, then looked at the other flags. All of the words had been transliterated underneath their original script, which was helpful for the ones he knew, but also allowed him to use the writing to guess the country.

Russia’s came next, easily identified by the Cyrillic script, followed by “guten tag” and “auf wiedersehen” on the Germany pole. All three were approved by the judge and Jonny moved on. The Chinese characters were put on next, but the judge said no, so Jonny flipped them, which got a thumbs up.

The last two words that were written in the Latin alphabet were placed on the Netherlands pole, two banners saying “goededag” and “tot ziens.” With just three countries left, Jonny heard shouting and turned to see Seth and Vivian running up to the clue box.

Jonny grabbed the two written in Devanagari script and put them on India, getting them right on the first try and leaving him with only Indonesia and Morocco left. All four flags that were left appeared to be in an Arabic script. He grabbed the two that both started with “Selamat” in the transliteration and brought them to the Indonesian flag. The first try was no good, so he flipped them again, and then he was down to just two more.

He clipped them on the Morocco pole and pulled them up, getting it right on the first try.

“You may raise the United Nations flag now.” The judge told them with a smile.

Patrick started shouting excitedly and ran to meet Jonny at the United Nations flag. They pulled the flag cord together until the clue came down and Jonny grabbed it with trembling fingers.

“This is it. Make your way to the finish line at the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows in Queens, site of the 1964 and 1965 World’s Fair. Note that you may not take a cab. Only foot travel and public transportation are allowed.” Jonny read excitedly, getting louder as he read. “Patrick, we could really win this.”

“Well, let’s go!” Patrick laughed and pulled Jonny towards the road. No one was nearby, so they started jogging up the road away from the United Nations until they found a small group of people.

“Hi, do you know the best way to get to Flushing Meadows in Queens?” Jonny asked them.

“Um, we’re just tourists, but I can look it up on my phone?” The woman offered and help up her phone.

“Yes, thank you. That would be so wonderful.” Jonny grinned at her as she opened up a map on her phone.

“Where is it you want?” She asked, ready to type.

“The Unisphere in Flushing Meadows.” Jonny repeated, double checking the clue. “We need to go by train or bus.”

“Okay.” She typed a few things before speaking again. “This says that if you go up the street to Grand Central Station, you can take the 7 train twelve minutes from now and get off at the Mets - Willets Point stop. You just go down another block to 42nd, then up until you get to the entrance to Grand Central.”

“Thank you so much.” Jonny told her before he and Patrick took off running in the direction she pointed out.

They followed the signs to the train, stopping to buy a card for the MTA for each of them, and hurried to the train platform just as the train was pulling in. The camera crew sprinted in after them and they were pulling away as soon as the doors shut.

“Patrick.” Jonny said, overwhelmed in the crowded train at the fact that they were currently speeding towards the finish line. “Allen and Genny might be ahead of us, but we might actually win this.”

“Either way, we’re going home tonight.” Patrick reminded him, pressing in closer than necessary but hidden by the crowd of people. The cameraman seemed to be resigned to not getting any useable material, so Jonny just pressed back, leaning in to speak into Patrick’s ear.

“I can’t wait to take you home. I’m so sick of all these cameras everywhere stopping me from doing what I want to you, stopping me from leaning in and kissing you and telling you I love you.”

“Jonny.” Patrick warned with a glance around them, but Jonny was careful to keep his voice low in the loud din of the train. “You know it’s still going to be like that. At least until we, you know.”

“Hey. You and me, no matter what, right?” Jonny asked, his mind racing from all of the sensations and ideas and want flowing through him.

“Yeah, Jonny. No matter what.” Patrick smiled and nudged him a few times.

“Okay, good.”

Jonny could see that Patrick was suspicious, but thankfully he dropped it, content to just roll with the punches and let Jonny take the lead.

The train started to clear out as they got further out into Queens until they were finally at their stop. They shared one last look before getting up and hurrying off the train. Once they made their way off of the platform and onto the bridge into Flushing Meadows Park, they started to run, veering to the right as they entered the park just like they’d seen on the map that the woman had pulled up.

“There! Look!” Patrick shouted and Jonny looked up to see the top of the Unisphere over the trees. No other teams were around them, so there was no reason to run since whatever place they were in was solidified at this point, but seeing the Unisphere spurred them on to run faster.

All of the other teams who’d been eliminated were cheering and screaming for them as they ran up to Phil and stopped on the mat.

“Five continents, thirteen countries. Jonathan and Patrick, you have won the one million dollars and you are the official winners of the Amazing Race. Congratulations!”

Patrick jumped excitedly into Jonny’s arms like they were celebrating an overtime goal in the playoffs, and Jonny couldn’t help himself.

He grabbed Patrick’s face and pressed his lips to Patrick’s, both of them laughing into the kiss in excitement.

“I called it!” Corinne shouted from the sidelines as they separated.

“Are you sure about this?” Patrick whispered into the space between them.

“Too late now.” Jonny teased before kissing him again. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“Well, anything you’d like to say?” Phil prompted with a grin at them.

“We are just so thrilled to have won. Every person in this race was a strong competitor and we loved racing alongside all of you.” Jonny told him, before glancing at Patrick with a smirk.

“Anything else?” Phil asked again.

“Oh, you mean about the kiss? Well, Jonny and I are very happily in a relationship with each other.”

“That’s fantastic. What are you planning on doing with your million dollars?”

“Well, we haven’t figured that out exactly, but we’d like to give it back to the community. We’ll be making a donation to a few different charities that our teammates and friends have started, as well as one to You Can Play.” Jonny answered, remembering what Patrick had written down.

“Congratulations again on winning.” Phil told them, shaking both of their hands before stepping back to let a few of the other teams rush up and hug them.

 


	15. Epilogue

After waiting at the finish line to congratulate Seth and Vivian on their second place finish and Genny and Allen on their third place finish, everyone was whisked away to a nearby hotel in several large vans. Everyone was put through exit interviews with camera crews before being given papers to sign and instructions on what would come next.

Elise stopped them on their way back to the van to let them know that she would be in contact with Pat Brisson to sort out everything that needed to be handled regarding their win and congratulated them with a knowing smile. Jonny knew she meant for more than just winning, and they thanked her profusely before getting into the van and heading to the airport.

“Listen, I need you guys to stay in touch. I want to know what happens with you two.” Izzy announced as they were parting ways after going through security.

“We promise.” Patrick told her and they all exchanged hugs.

On the plane, they both collapsed and fell asleep, all of the excitement of the day finally wearing them down. They napped until the plane was starting to land and then cuddled up against each other in the backseat of the cab after giving the driver Patrick’s address.

Jonny tried not to think too hard about all of the things going on in his mind, but when Patrick let him into the condo, he couldn’t stop the words from spilling out of his mouth.

“So, are the boxes and the realtor for you or for me?”

Patrick looked up from where he was turning their phones back on to stare at Jonny. They watched each other in silence for a few moments, their buzzing phones the only noise in the room as they loaded all of their missed texts.

“It’s fine either way. I mean, I like my place, but I like your place, too. I know how much you love living here, although it’d probably be hard to hide me being here all the time since pretty much everyone who watches hockey knows you live here. We could do it, though. It won’t matter after the finale airs, so I don’t care if people figure it out.”

“I thought maybe we could find a new place together, some place that we both really love. We signed on for eight more years here, and I plan to keep signing contracts here with you until neither of us can play anymore. This, us, sure, it might not work out, but I’m pretty sure it will and I don’t see the point in being apart any more than necessary. So, you pick. Here, your place, somewhere new entirely.”

“I’ll call my realtor tomorrow to set up putting my place up on the market, then I can move in here until we find a place we really love to settle down in. I’m in no big rush. It can wait until next summer or however long it takes to find the perfect place.”

“Okay, let’s do it.” Patrick grinned and pulled Jonny in for a kiss. “But first, why don’t we go make sure my bed will be up to your standards?”

“Sounds like a fantastic plan.”

* * *

In between beginning to train for the season and getting Jonny moved in, they both managed to convince their families to come down for a visit. They booked everyone into hotel rooms in Trump Tower and told them they were having dinner at Patrick’s. Jonny’s parents were a little confused as to why they had to stay so far away from Jonny’s condo, but they trusted him.

When they arrived, Jonny could see his mother looking carefully around at everything, eyes catching on things that had been moved over from his condo, but she didn’t say anything. When they all sat down for dinner, they stood up together and told everyone about their relationship. No one was surprised, but they were all incredibly supportive. Their parents simply congratulated them before pressing them to start eating, not wanting to make a big deal out of the situation, and all of their siblings teased them for finally getting together while they were away.

The team was a different story and they weren’t sure how everyone would react. Most of the guys wouldn’t care at all, but they weren’t sure about some of the others.

On the Sunday night of the premier episode, Jonny and Patrick convinced a reluctant Sharpy to host a pre-season cook-out at his place.

“I still do not understand why we couldn’t have done this at Jonny’s place. He has that nice little terrace and he’s, you know, _the captain_.” Sharpy complained loudly to Patrick as he pulled the steaks from the grill.

“You’ll understand in a little while, okay?” Jonny overhead Patrick tell him and watched at Sharpy gave him an unimpressed look.

“Fine, whatever.”

They brought the steaks inside and everyone got their plates and moved to head back out to the yard, but Jonny stopped them.

“No, everyone to the living room. Peeks and I have something to show you guys.”

Everyone grumbled and turned around, making their way into the living room and grabbing seats wherever they could.

“Okay, so, as you all know, Patrick and I went away for a while this summer. We kind of lied to everyone about why that is and we wanted you all to find out from us before you get asked about it.”

Jonny grabbed the remote to turn the TV on since the premier episode was about to start, ignoring the chirps speculating where they’d been. He stopped on CBS just as the opening notes of the theme song were starting.

He could hear the murmurs of confusion for a few moments as the first few teams appeared in the opening credits. When he and Patrick popped up, the noise level jumped up as everyone started talking at once.

“Shhhhh, you’ll wake the baby.” Abby admonished them all softly and the whole team apologized to her. “Thank you.”

“Yes, Kaner and I were on the Amazing Race. No, we can’t tell you if we won. Yes, we can watch it now. Yes, you can chirp us about it.” Jonny answered them all at once. “Now shut up, you’re missing it.”

Everyone settled down to eat and watch the first episode of the show, chirping them the whole time and congratulating them on winning the first leg. After the episode was finished, Patrick and Abby brought out dessert as everyone discussed the show.

“I think they must win, because otherwise, Jonny would’ve found some way to let them re-do the whole race.” Sharpy speculated. “Plus, Peekaboo is still in one piece, which I find hard to believe would be the case if these two had to spend an entire month together and not winning.”

“There’s actually one other thing we needed to talk to you guys about.” Patrick said when the speculations and discussions died down. “Uh, this isn’t easy for us to say and I really hope you guys will be cool about it, but, um, Jonny and I are together.”

“As in, dating.” Jonny clarified, looking at the group nervously. Everyone just stared back for a few moments and Jonny felt his nerves tighten. “Is that okay?”

“Yeah, of course.” Duncs told them with a smile.

“Did you get together on the race?” Seabs asked excitedly.

“Yeah, we did.” Jonny nodded, knocking his shoulder into Patrick’s and smiling at him fondly.

“Don’t tell us!” Sharpy cut him off from saying anything else. “We have to watch each episode and see if we can figure out when it happened! At the end of the race, we all put our bets in and the closest to the right time wins.”

“Can I bet?” Patrick asked with a grin, but Saader yelled over him to restart the episode so they could watch while looking for clues.

Patrick and Jonny settled into the armchair together next to the one Sharpy was sitting in as he rewound the DVR to the beginning of the episode.

“Aw, aren’t you two adorable?” Seabs cooed at them, but Patrick just flipped him off.

“Did you think we wouldn’t be cool with it?” Shawzy asked from his seat between Saader and Krugs.

“Is that why you wanted to have this at my house? So that if anyone was mad, they could break shit at my house instead of yours?” Sharpy demanded after he hit play.

“No, of course not. We were pretty sure everyone would be okay with it.” Patrick answered quickly. “It’s just that Tazer’s place is kind of-”

“Empty.” Jonny finished for him. “And our place doesn’t have anywhere to put a grill.”

“You two.” Sharpy chuckled and shook his head. “I trust that you two know what you’re doing.”

* * *

On the night of the final episode, the Hawks had a game, so Patrick and Jonny didn’t know how the world was reacting to their news until after they finished. Jonny could tell they were both a little bit distracted, but he was still trying to keep it together.

They managed a win and Patrick was even named first star. Jonny watched from the tunnel as he answered the obligatory questions about the game for the first star interview, not knowing who was going to mention it first. He knew that their kiss and announcement made it on the final cut of the episode, and CBS had agreed to run the You Can Play video that he and Patrick had made right after the episode had finished airing.

“Now, Patrick, I understand something else big happened tonight.” Jonny froze. “I assume you know what I’m talking about. Well, I’m being asked if we can have your approval to show the video.”

“Yeah, I know what you’re talking about. Hold on.” Patrick leaned away from the microphone to gesture for Jonny to come over. “I need Jonny here with me for this.” Patrick reached down and tangled their fingers together before nodding. “Go ahead and play the video.”

On every screen in the United Center, Jonny watched as the You Can Play video they’d made together started. They both spoke for a few moments about gay athletes and how things needed to change before getting to the end of the video.

“I’m Jonathan Toews, and I’m gay.”

“I’m Patrick Kane, and I’m bisexual.”

“And if we can play,”

“You can play.”

As soon as the video faded out, the arena erupted into applause and cheers. Jonny grinned and Patrick buried his giggles in Jonny’s shoulder pad. Jonny pressed a kiss to Patrick’s hair, sweaty curls wild from his helmet, which caused the crowd to cheer even more excitedly. They both waved to the crowd and stepped back to go down the tunnel, but Bowman was standing there and gestured to the ice.

Jonny stepped out onto the ice first, grabbing for Patrick’s hand with his free hand. Patrick shifted his stick into his other hand and tangled his fingers with Jonny’s. They skated a lap around the ice before holding up their sticks in a salute and finally heading back to the locker room.

The media scrum was absolutely insane. Patrick and Jonny had already decided to answer questions together and tried their best to answer all of the reasonable questions.

Yes, we’re still together. Yes, it’s serious. Yes, the team knows. No, they don’t mind. Yes, some of the other players around the league know already, too. Yes, we’re giving all of our winnings to charity with the exception of a few checks we wrote to other contestants to help them out. Yes, we matched all of the donations with money from our own pockets. Yes, that’s why Jonny sold his condo. Yes, we know other gay athletes. No, we’re not telling you who. Yes, we hope more players will come out because of us, but we certainly aren’t pressuring anyone.

After what felt like hours, they were finally allowed to leave. Both of their phones had large amounts of messages, most of which were from ex-teammates and friends around the league. Word had spread around the league a little bit already, but miraculously nothing had leaked to the press. They only knew that other people had found out because they’d received phone calls and texts of congratulations and support over the past few months since they came out to the team, some of whom had come out to them as well. The new round of messages all needed to be answered, but they decided to ignore them until the following day in favor of heading straight to bed for a long, slow fuck before passing out from exhaustion from both the game and the media circus.

* * *

“So, I have this idea.” Erica declared over the phone one afternoon during the following summer.

Patrick had her on speakerphone and had his head in Jonny’s lap, playing with the new ring on his finger. Jonny was attempting to look through files on a few houses that Patrick had found with the realtor, but his eyes kept catching on where the light was hitting the jewels.

He smiled to himself, hoping Patrick would be half as fascinated with the ring he had ready and waiting for their anniversary dinner that night as he was with his newest Stanley Cup ring. It certainly wasn’t as flashy, but he was pretty sure Patrick would love it all the same.

“What’s your idea?” Patrick asked her curiously. Jonny started to stroke his hair softly and he hummed contentedly.

“Hear me out. So, there’s this show, right? It’s called Survivor.”

“No.” They both cut her off in unison immediately.

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you've enjoyed this, please feel free to come talk to me/shout at me/prompt me/make noises at me/etc over on tumblr at [chelseaibelieve](http://chelseaibelieve.tumblr.com). If you hated it, I suppose you're more than welcome to come let me know that as well.
> 
> I'm also taking any prompts for timestamps in the 'verse as well. :) Just let me know if there's something you want to see in the comments section and I'll do my best.


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